Is it ethically correct to shoot down hijacked airplanes?

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2014 im Fachbereich Philosophie - Praktische (Ethik, Ästhetik, Kultur, Natur, Recht, ...), Note: 1,0, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: 'You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy' - Colin Powell, Secretary of State (USA). This quote is related to 9/11, when a series of terrorist attacks, launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda killed almost 3,000 people. Four passenger airliners were hijacked and abused as weapons. Most of the US (United States) American people would now agree that these airplanes should have been shot down by the US Air force before they could hit their targets. Colin Powell was right that the American spirit will prevail over this kind of attacks in the future. The Air force is now authorized by law to shoot down hijacked commercial airplanes, which appear to be a threat to the US. A similar law had been drafted in Germany in 2005. In contrast to the US, it has been rejected by the German Federal Constitutional Court. It was concluded that it is not conform to the first Article of the German Constitution: 'Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority' - Grundgesetz, Article 1 The current status is as follows: in case of an 'exceptional situation of catastrophic proportions' a hijacked airplane may not be shot directly, but may be threatened to be shot and forced to land by the German Air Force. It can be summarized that the US and German law contrast each other. The question arises which moral practice can be seen as the right and just. The issue can be summarized to one question and be answered with the claim this paper will reason for: Question: Is it morally right to shoot down a hijacked airplane and sacrifice its passengers in order to prevent the hijackers from using the airplane as a weapon? Claim: No, it is not morally correct.