Presiding Judge How far away were the planes from the stadium?
Lauterbach Around twenty-five kilometres.
Presiding Judge Had the Lufthansa aircraft changed its course at all during the entire time?
Lauterbach No. Then Major Koch shouted into the microphone.
Presiding Judge He shouted?
Lauterbach Yes.
Presiding Judge What did he shout?
Lauterbach ‘If I don’t shoot now, thousands of people are going to die.’
Presiding Judge Were those his exact words?
Lauterbach Yes.
Presiding Judge And then?
Lauterbach I saw on my screen that Major Koch had fired the Sidewinder.
Presiding Judge And what is a Sidewinder?
Lauterbach A munition.
Presiding Judge Presumably things are about to get technical again?
Lauterbach It’s an air-to-air guided missile type AIM-9L/I Sidewinder.
Presiding Judge And how does it work?
Lauterbach The Sidewinder has an infrared sensor. It homes in on heat sources.
Presiding Judge And that is exactly what happened?
Lauterbach The heat-seeker locked on to and hit the right engine of the Lufthansa aircraft. The plane crashed into a potato field.
Presiding Judge What time was that?
Lauterbach 20:21. Wait a moment, let me just check.
Yes, at precisely 20:21 hours and 34 seconds. That was the moment when the Sidewinder was released electronically.
Presiding Judge And the rapid reaction force?
Lauterbach The two fighters turned away and flew back to base. Major Koch was arrested as soon as he’d landed. Our colleagues from the Federal Police had of course called out the emergency services. They searched the wreckage for survivors and secured the scene. There were no survivors.
But I only know that second hand.
Presiding Judge Did you have any means of preventing the weapon from being fired from the command centre?
Lauterbach How?
Presiding Judge I don’t know, blocking it by radio perhaps.
Lauterbach No, there’s no way of doing that. The pilot can and must have independent control of his own weapons system.
Presiding Judge That makes sense. So the matter lay exclusively in his hands.
Lauterbach Yes.
Presiding Judge And the planes are always armed?
Lauterbach They’re fighter jets. Of course they’re armed.
Presiding Judge Did you report to General Radtke that the plane had been shot down?
Lauterbach Of course.
Presiding Judge How did he react?
Lauterbach Not at all.
Presiding Judge I beg your pardon?
Lauterbach He simply received the message. What was going on inside him, I don’t know. He did, however, order that all recordings of the incident should be secured and that Major Koch should be handed over to the Federal Police. Without delay.
Presiding Judge Yes. Well. For my part I have no further questions for the witness. The facts of the case appear to lie clearly before us. They confirm the defendant’s confession on every single point. Does anyone else in the court have questions for the witness? Prosecutor?
State Prosecutor I have no questions for the witness.
Presiding Judge Counsel for the Defence, any questions?
Defence Counsel No, I don’t have any questions either.
Presiding Judge Fine. Are there any motions to place the witness under oath? If not, then …
State Prosecutor I do have a question after all. Sorry.
Presiding Judge Yes, of course.
State Prosecutor Mr Lauterbach, just very briefly: at the beginning of your testimony you said that everyone in the room knew that the plane had been hijacked.
Lauterbach Yes.
State Prosecutor You said that among you there were officals of the Federal Police, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transport, Disaster Assistance and so forth.
Lauterbach That is correct.
State Prosecutor Who in the room decided to evacuate the stadium?
Lauterbach Evacuate the stadium?
State Prosecutor Yes, who ordered that?
Lauterbach I don’t know.
State Prosecutor Try to remember, please. We’ve got time.
Lauterbach I’ve no idea.
State Prosecutor Really?
Lauterbach I honestly don’t know.
State Prosecutor You’re in the same position as me, then: I don’t know either. And do you know, Mr Lauterbach, do you know why I don’t know?
Lauterbach No.
State Prosecutor The reason I don’t know is because nobody did make that decision. No one. Not a single person in your command centre gave the order to clear the stadium at any time.
Lauterbach But …
State Prosecutor Yes?
Now the question I have is a very simple one: Why not? Why was that order not given?
Mr Lauterbach?
Lauterbach Yes …
State Prosecutor We’re waiting …
Lauterbach I … we … we didn’t have time for that.
State Prosecutor Really?
Lauterbach Yes.
State Prosecutor So there was no time. If I look here at the timings which you have given us, then from the first radio signal – at 19:32 – to the estimated impact of the aircraft – at 20:24 – there was time. Fifty-two minutes of time, to be precise.
Lauterbach Fifty-two minutes …
State Prosecutor Yes. Fifty-two minutes.
I have here in front of me the emergency plan for the stadium. Page 438 from Volume 19. According to this, at full capacity the entire stadium can be evacuated completely within fifteen minutes. In fifty-two minutes therefore all or most probably almost all of those people would have been able to leave the stadium.
Lauterbach All of them.
State Prosecutor There’s no need to repeat everything I say. I just want to know why nobody ordered the stadium to be cleared.
Lauterbach That … that …
State Prosecutor Was it perhaps the case that you and your colleagues were quite simply certain?
Lauterbach Certain? Certain about what?
State Prosecutor Certain that Major Koch would shoot the plane down.
Lauterbach No.
State Prosecutor I’ll ask you again: was it not the case that the only reason you did not evacuate the stadium was because you knew that if the worst came to the worst the defendant would shoot?
Lauterbach No.
State Prosecutor No? Think again before you answer. You can be put on oath here – as the Presiding Judge has already reminded you.
Lauterbach Yes, possibly.
Presiding Judge Speak up a little please. The acoustics in this room are very poor.
Lauterbach I could imagine that.
State Prosecutor What exactly could you imagine?
Lauterbach That Major Koch would shoot.
State Prosecutor And why could you imagine that, Mr Lauterbach?
Lauterbach Because …
State Prosecutor Could it possibly be because you yourself would also have shot the plane down?
Lauterbach No, I don’t know …
(To the Presiding Judge.) Do I have to answer that question?
Presiding Judge Well, I can’t see how you might incriminate yourself by giving a truthful answer.
Lauterbach What?
Presiding Judge You do have to answer the question.
Lauterbach (to the State Prosecutor) I don’t know.
State Prosecutor Perhaps I can help you, Mr Lauterbach. Are you aware that the Minister of Defence at the time of the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling said he would still order hijacked planes to be shot down?
Lauterbach Hmm.
State Prosecutor Yes or no?
Lauterbach I am aware of that remark, yes.
State Prosecutor Defe
nce Minister Jung said, and I quote: ‘In the interim period we would intervene by declaring an extra-legal state of emergency.’
Lauterbach Yes, I did read that.
State Prosecutor Was that discussed within the team?
Lauterbach Of course. It was the topic of discussion.
State Prosecutor The topic of discussion?
Lauterbach Everyone in this unit is constantly thinking about what is going to happen in the event of Renegade.
State Prosecutor And do you also remember the Defence Minister saying that the only pilots who would be selected were those prepared to shoot down a plane in an emergency?
Lauterbach I am also aware of that.
State Prosecutor So was that ultimately the reason? Was that why no one thought of evacuating the stadium?
Lauterbach shakes his head.
Think this through one more time. You were sure how Major Koch would react, weren’t you?
Lauterbach I don’t know what to say. I’m not prepared for that question.
Presiding Judge The truth would be helpful.
Lauterbach I … assume that most of my colleagues would act precisely as Major Koch did. Yes. I too would probably have shot down the Lufthansa aircraft.
State Prosecutor There we are.
Lauterbach What are you getting at?
State Prosecutor So not evacuating the stadium was a gamble, Mr Lauterbach.
Lauterbach I beg your pardon?
State Prosecutor You were gambling. You gambled the lives of 70,000 people on the defendant’s decision.
Lauterbach That’s cynical.
State Prosecutor Cynical? Why is it cynical?
Lauterbach I assure you I was not gambling.
State Prosecutor Mr Lauterbach, if you had had the stadium cleared, none of the spectators would have been in danger. But evidently you didn’t want to do that.
Lauterbach For God’s sake – I didn’t want to do that?
State Prosecutor Yes, if we’re being honest, at that point you were certain that things would turn out differently. That the defendant would shoot. And that is precisely the gamble you took.
Lauterbach I can only repeat …
State Prosecutor There’s no need. It’s already clear: it wasn’t a calculation, 164 lives against 70,000 lives …
Defence Counsel That is enough. The witness here is not the accused. I move …
State Prosecutor I’ll put it another way. Mr Lauterbach, imagine there was no rapid reaction force.
Lauterbach This is getting confusing now.
State Prosecutor Just imagine that for a moment.
Lauterbach Yes.
State Prosecutor All you had was the terrorist’s words on the radio. What would you have done then?
Lauterbach I don’t know …
Now I understand. You think someone would have –
State Prosecutor – ordered –
Lauterbach – the stadium to be cleared.
But that’s a completely different situation.
State Prosecutor Is it?
Lauterbach I mean … I think …
State Prosecutor Thank you. No further questions.
Presiding Judge Counsel, do you have any questions?
Defence Counsel Only three.
Presiding Judge Go ahead.
Defence Counsel Were you personally responsible for evacuating the stadium?
Lauterbach No, that was the Bavarian emergency services.
Defence Counsel Was the defendant responsible for evacuating the stadium?
Lauterbach Of course not.
Defence Counsel The stadium was full as the Lufthansa aircraft approached. Could the defendant do anything to change that
Lauterbach No.
Defence Counsel Thank you. That should be made clear. No further questions.
Presiding Judge Very well. Are there any motions to place the witness under oath?
Both State Prosecutor and Defence Counsel shake their heads.
(To Lauterbach.) Then you are discharged as a witness, Mr Lauterbach. The court thanks you for your testimony.
Lauterbach Excuse me, but where do I hand in the form for witness compensation? Today’s my day off.
Presiding Judge Come here. Let me see that.
Lauterbach goes to the judge’s desk and hands the Presiding Judge a form. The Presiding Judge skims through it, looks at the clock on the courtroom wall, signs it and hands it back to Lauterbach.
There you are.
Lauterbach Thank you.
Presiding Judge Take that to room 332b, it’s down the corridor, the fourth door.
Lauterbach Thank you very much.
Lauterbach exits.
Presiding Judge Now, Counsel, is your client prepared to answer further questions from the court?
Defence Counsel Yes.
Presiding Judge Mr Koch?
Defendant I’ll try.
Presiding Judge Good, then please step forward and take the witness’s chair. It will be easier to hear you that way.
The Defendant walks up to the witness’s chair and sits down.
Of course you may pause in your answers at any point to speak to your Defence Counsel.
Defendant Fine.
Presiding Judge We will start with some biographical details, Mr Koch. You are your parents’ first child?
Defendant Yes, I have one sister who is three years younger.
Presiding Judge What were your parents’ professions?
Defendant My father was also in the Air Force. After reunification he became a staff officer in the press department at the Ministry of Defence. My mother is a bookseller. After I was born, she stayed at home. She was a housewife and mother.
Presiding Judge You were born in Freiburg and attended school there?
Defendant Yes, kindergarten, primary school and grammar school, all in Freiburg.
Presiding Judge I have your school-leaving certificate here. You attained the top grade in every subject. Your class teacher adds that in Mathematics you even got the highest mark in the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Defendant That is correct.
Presiding Judge What were your interests outside of school?
Defendant Physics. Every year I used to enter ‘Young Scientist of the Year’.
Presiding Judge And one time you even won second prize.
Defendant Yes. Apart from that I did a lot of sport, especially football and athletics.
Presiding Judge Would it be fair to say that school and learning came easily to you?
Defendant Yes.
Presiding Judge Your childhood and youth were untroubled?
Defendant I would say they were happy. Yes.
Presiding Judge Let us come to your choice of profession. Was it actually your own wish to become a soldier? Or was it your father’s?
Defendant It’s true that my father did also want to be a fighter pilot.
Presiding Judge And?
Defendant He didn’t make it.
Presiding Judge I see.
Defendant I always wanted to join the Air Force. When I was a child I wanted to be a fighter pilot. It was all I was interested in. I used to have posters of aeroplanes on my bedroom wall.
Presiding Judge What made you interested in them?
Defendant I found it fascinating. The dream of flying, the speed, the precision of the planes.
Presiding Judge As soon as you left school, when you were eighteen, you applied for a position as an officer trainee …
Defendant I was invited to attend the Officer Candidate Assessment Centre in Cologne and took an aptitude test. That lasted two days. Afterwards I was examined to check that I was medically and psychologically fit and had the psychomotor skills necessary for the service. In October I entered the service at Fürstenfeldbruck.
Presiding Judge What did that consist of?
Defendant In the first year I completed officer training and was commissioned with the rank of Ensign. Then over the next two ye
ars I went through basic and advanced training as a pilot.
Presiding Judge Where did you do that?
Defendant In the United States, to be precise in Goodyear, Arizona. Then I trained as a jet pilot at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. Fifteen months.
Presiding Judge What does one learn there?
Defendant Essentially: flying.
There is theoretical and simulator-based training for about three hundred flying hours. Once that section of the training is completed, you are licensed to fly military aircraft.
Presiding Judge And then?
Defendant Then I had to familiarise myself with flying conditions in Germany.
Presiding Judge Are they so very different?
Defendant The topography and weather conditions are different. And it’s much more complicated moving around within European airspace – if you think of how many borders there are and the number of flights here.
Presiding Judge I see. Did you sign up for sixteen years as a regular soldier right at the start?
Defendant The term of duty is not fixed straight away. One signs up in stages according to one’s level of training.
Presiding Judge I have your Air Force personnel file here. You have consistently received the best appraisals and on each occasion you were, and I quote: ‘unreservedly recommended for promotion’.
Defendant What you need to bear in mind is: the proportion of people that apply to join the Air Force who end up in the cockpit of a fighter jet is one in ten thousand. Even out of the trained pilots only one in ten is ever going to fly the Eurofighter.
Presiding Judge So it’s a rigorous selection process.
Defendant In this country there are more chairmen of public companies and more heart surgeons than there are fighter pilots.
Presiding Judge Let us come to the events of 26th May. Did you follow the statement made here in the court by the witness Lt Col Lauterbach?
Defendant Yes.
Presiding Judge And in your view, did the witness represent the sequence of events accurately?
Defendant Yes.
Presiding Judge They match your recollections?
Defendant Completely.
Presiding Judge Good. Would you describe for us the minutes before the Lufthansa aeroplane was shot down once again please, from your own personal point of view.
Defendant The diversion and the warning shots produced no reaction from the captain of the Lufthansa aircraft, as you have heard. A couple of minutes later we received the order from the DC not to shoot.
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