French officials have said they will shoot down private pilots who stray into restricted airspace during this weekend’s 60th anniversary D-Day events in Normandy, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday. At least 16 heads of state and 1 million visitors are expected to attend the ceremonies. The region will be protected by an array of radar installations, AWACs aircraft on patrol, remote-controlled drones, two squadrons of Mirage 2000 fighters, lots of anti-aircraft missiles, 50 military helicopters, 9,000 troops, 10,000 police, at least two aircraft carriers offshore, plus an unknown number of submarines. Our advice: Don’t fly in that airspace. Organizers said they are guarding particularly against an al Qaeda attack from the air. Tuesday, the entire country was put on “red alert,” the second-highest tier in their terror-alert scale.
