WASHINGTON, July 8: The US Air Force came close to shooting Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher out of the sky when his twin-engine plane intruded into banned air space over the US capital during the funeral last month for ex-president Ronald Reagan , the Washington Post said on Thursday.

"They had the general on the phone, and he was in position to make the call," an unnamed US official said, referring to North American Aerospace Defence Command commander, Air Force General Ralph Eberhart, who was ready to order an F-16 fighter jet to shoot down the intruder.

"This was the closest we have come to making that difficult decision, triggering a chain of events that could be pretty horrific," the official added. The June 9 incident ended well, with Mr Fletcher's twin-engine plane landing safely at Reagan National Airport.

Ernie Fletcher was arriving for Ronald Reagan's funeral when the plane strayed over restricted airspace that extends 26 kilometres around the Washington Monument. According to accounts by current and former homeland security officials, Mr Fletcher's plane remained unidentified for several critical minutes and penetrated deeply into the no-fly zone, exposing a significant security breakdown.

They said a fighter plane scrambled to intercept Mr Fletcher's aircraft but could not make visual contact because of cloud cover. As a result, they said, Gen Eberhart did not give the order to shoot down the plane, which turned to land before it was identified. -AFP