Presiding Judge Complicated.
Lauterbach In future it’s planned to bring everything together under one European agency, but we haven’t got that far yet.
Presiding Judge I see. So normally NATO watches over our airspace but the national defence system is activated for hijackings.
Lauterbach You can put it that way, yes.
Presiding Judge Who is employed at this command centre?
Lauterbach Staff from the Ministry of Defence, in other words Air Force personnel. They have many years’ experience monitoring airspace.
Presiding Judge And apart from them?
Lauterbach There are also officials from the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Transport, Construction and Urban Development and the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance.
Presiding Judge How many people altogether?
Lauterbach Between sixty and sixty-five.
Presiding Judge And where is this command centre located?
Lauterbach In Uedem in North Rhine-Westphalia. Along with the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre.
Presiding Judge And that’s where you were on duty on 26th May?
Lauterbach Yes.
Presiding Judge Could you please explain to us precisely how airspace is monitored?
Lauterbach We use both primary and secondary radar. And we also have access to all the data from civil aviation security and state and federal police. We also receive any secret service information relevant to air traffic. All of this is collated to give us an overview of the situation.
Presiding Judge I see.
Lauterbach We’re constantly on the lookout for Renegade.
Presiding Judge Renegade?
Lauterbach Sorry. That refers to a civilian aircraft being pirated in the air for terrorist purposes. We call that ‘Renegade’.
Presiding Judge It sounds American.
Lauterbach It is. It’s the internationally accepted term.
Presiding Judge Very well then, Renegade. How do you find out about such a case?
Lauterbach That is the most difficult part of our job. What we do is stay in radio contact with every aircraft and look for irregularities.
Presiding Judge Such as?
Lauterbach An aeroplane going off course or the automatic recognition system being switched off or simply being unable to make radio contact.
Presiding Judge Does that happen often?
Lauterbach Usually three or four times a day. They’re hardly ever hijackings. Still, we need to check on every single one and then make a decision.
Presiding Judge I see.
Lauterbach On 26th May it was very straightforward, though.
Presiding Judge Straightforward? Why?
Lauterbach The terrorist forced the pilot to announce over the radio that he had hijacked the aeroplane.
Presiding Judge Could you be more precise, please?
Lauterbach At 19:32 we received a radio transmission from Lufthansa flight LH 2047. This was the flight from Berlin-Tegel to Munich, departing 19:20, landing 20:30. The pilot said he was being forced to read a text aloud.
Presiding Judge What was this text?
Lauterbach (reads from a sheet of paper) ‘With the grace of God, I have this plane in my power. Rejoice, community of Muslims. The crusader governments of Germany, Italy, Denmark and England have killed our brothers, now we will kill your families. You shall die as we have died.’
Presiding Judge In those precise words?
Lauterbach Yes, those were the words.
Then the pilot said that the terrorist wanted to crash the aircraft into the football stadium in Munich. He was referring to the Allianz Arena. That day there was an international match there: Germany versus England. The stadium was sold out, 70,000 spectators.
Presiding Judge You heard him say that on the radio yourself?
Lauterbach Yes. It’s recorded, all radio transmissions are saved. I put it on loudspeaker so that everyone in the room could hear.
Presiding Judge Did the terrorist reveal his identity?
Lauterbach We only found that out later. He was a suicide bomber belonging to an Al Qaeda splinter organisation.
Presiding Judge That’s not something you know from your own enquiries, is it?
Lauterbach No, from the Federal Criminal Police. And then the newspapers. As I said, that wasn’t till much later.
Presiding Judge What did you do after you’d heard what was said on the radio?
Lauterbach I informed everyone in the room.
Presiding Judge Yes, you put the message on the loudspeakers, you’ve already said that. I mean after that.
Lauterbach Right. I initiated a sequence of calls to all NATO command centres. At the same time I informed the Commander of the Air Force, Lieutentant General Radtke.
Presiding Judge Who is he?
Lauterbach He is the most senior general in the Air Force. I reported to him.
Presiding Judge Is that usual practice?
Lauterbach Yes, and it’s in the official regulations.
Presiding Judge Go on.
Lauterbach I gave the order for the rapid reaction force to be deployed and to establish visual contact with the hijacked Lufthansa aeroplane.
Presiding Judge What is a rapid reaction force?
Lauterbach Two fighter aircraft, of the Eurofighter type.
They are on constant standby. One unit is stationed in the north, in Wittmund in East Frisia, and the other is in the south, in Neuburg on the Danube. The fighters from Wittmund were airborne at the time. It took the pilots eleven minutes to reach the Lufthansa plane.
Presiding Judge That’s very fast, isn’t it?
Lauterbach It’s normal. Our airspace isn’t that big.
Presiding Judge Fine. Who were the pilots? I mean the pilots of the rapid reaction force.
Lauterbach Major Koch and First Lieutenant Weinberger.
The rapid reaction force is generally staffed so that an older, more experienced pilot will fly together with a younger one. Major Koch is thirty-one years old, First Lieutenant Weinberger twenty-five.
Presiding Judge I see. Let’s go back to your telephone call with Lieutenant General Radtke.
Lauterbach Yes.
Presiding Judge What were his orders?
Lauterbach The first thing General Radtke wanted to know was whether the rapid reaction force already had visual contact with the pilot.
Presiding Judge What was your answer?
Lauterbach After the fighters had caught up with the Lufthansa aircraft, it was possible to establish visual contact. The officers reported being able to see a man dressed in civilian clothes in the cockpit. This man was between the pilot and co-pilot. Radio contact was no longer possible as the devices on board the Lufthansa aircraft had been switched off.
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