CAPE CANAVERAL, Dec 4: An F-16 jet on Tuesday intercepted a helicopter flying inside the 55-kilometre zone over Kennedy Space Center here, the center’s security chief said.

“A helicopter was intercepted by an F-16,” said Colonel Sam Dick, adding: “We don’t believe it was malicious.”

He said the helicopter was “turned over to a sheriff’s helicopter that escorted it to the Merritt Island Airport.”

Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, officials ordered all air traffic within a 55-kilometer (34-mile) radius of Kennedy’s launch pad — where the Space Shuttle Endeavour now sits, awaiting its scheduled 2245 GMT Tuesday launch — to be frozen.

The shuttle will be the first US space shuttle launched since the attacks, which killed more than 3,400 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. —AFP