The IOC said preventing a “catastrophe scenario” of an airliner crashing into the opening ceremony of the Olympics has been part of security planning since the 1972 Munich massacre.
IOC director general Francois Carrard said, “in our assumptions for every Games, regardless of the tragedy of Sept. 11, the catastrophe scenario has always been incorporated. In fact our scenario was, and is, a plane crashing in the midst of the opening ceremony, full of people, full of fuel, broadcast live worldwide on television”.
Carrard said, “this is a worst possible scenario which is factored in. This has always been in the last editions of the Games the assumption of the people working on security at government level and organizational level, with our input”.
Because the Olympics take place at a specific time and location, Carrard said it is easier to plan to prevent a plane disaster than it was in New York and Washington.
