A law allowing the German air force to shoot down errant planes to prevent a suicide attack is against the constitution and must be scrapped, the country's highest court ruled on Wednesday. The German law, drawn up two years after the suicide hijack attacks on the United States of Sept. 11, 2001, would have allowed the defense minister to order the shooting down of a hijacked or rogue plane. But it was challenged in the Constitutional Court by critics who argued the state had no right to "sacrifice" apparently doomed passengers to try to save lives on the ground.
