NEW YORK, Aug 31: Moments after the Sept 11 attacks, a US air defence commander considered sending pilots aboard unarmed airforce fighter jets on suicide missions to ram any other hijacked airliners headed towards Washington, ABC News reported on Friday.

However, no such missions were ordered, nor did the commander, Air Force Col Robert Marr, ask his superiors in the North American Aerospace Defence Command for authority to issue such orders.

“It was a thought that went through his mind,” said Marr’s spokeswoman, Lt Col Kacey Blaney.

Marr said on Friday on ABC News the idea of ramming any additional hijacked airliners — beyond the three that hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the one that crashed in Pennsylvania — came up as he and aides huddled in their command centre to consider the unprecedented crisis that was unfolding.

At that moment, it was unclear how many hijackings would occur, and Marr knew he had only four armed fighter jets available in his area of responsibility, called the Northeast Air Defence Sector, stretching from Minnesota and Maine to Virginia.

“In the heat of the moment, all suggestions were considered, but no decision was made to employ unarmed fighters” as battering rams, Marr said in a statement provided by Blaney.

The fact that the United States had only a small number of armed fighter jets on air defence duty on Sept 11 reflects that in the aftermath of the Cold War, aerial attacks were considered a minimal threat.