Associated Press
Two jets packed with military personnel pretending to be civilians took off from Whidbey Island and Salt Lake City on Tuesday in a twin hijacking drill designed to improve coordination among American and Canadian agencies.
About a dozen fighter jets from the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado scrambled to respond to the simulated hijackings, and ran through several scenarios.
The scenario was planned before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but Snyder said the events that day helped officials fine-tune the exercise.
The exercise, involving more than 1,500 personnel from the United States and Canada, began about 7 a.m.
One plane, a Navy C-9 airlifter, acting as another airliner, traveled from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station to Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia.
The other was a Delta Air Lines 757 that took off from Salt Lake City and was headed to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.
By midafternoon, the planes had landed and law enforcement officers on the ground began running through their own scenarios for dealing with the hijackers.
Snyder said the airborne portion of the scenario was a success but would not detail the specifics of the exercises. He hinted that the fighter pilots simulated shooting down the planes.
Such training exercises are held annually. Last year’s exercise involved testing defenses against a cruise missile terrorist attack on the Florida Panhandle.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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