Airbus, Siemens and dozens of other European companies are working on a system that would reroute control of hijacked aircraft to the ground. The system would then safely land the plane at the nearest airport. The project is set to cost $45 million, a large portion of which has been paid for by the European Commission. The story was first reported by the German news magazine Der Spiegel amid public debate in Germany over whether a hijacked plane should be shot down by the military.

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