Aviation Terrorism & Anti-Hijacking

(It is a summary guideline on the topic)

Aviation Terrorism (Some categories)

Terrorism has become the nightmare of the modem world. The means by which terrorism manifests
itself are as brutal as they are imaginative. They include hijacking aircraft, firing heat-seeking missiles at
aircraft, bombing aircraft or airport lounges, gunning down passengers at airports, and more recently,
turning aircraft into guided missiles aimed at financial and governmental institutions. Hijackings account
for the largest percentage of all attacks against civil aviation. Other criminal acts include: airport attacks;
bombings, attempted bombings, and shootings on board civil aviation aircraft; general and charter
aviation aircraft incidents; off-airport facility attacks; and shootings at in-flight aircraft. Another trend
emerging in light of events taking place in conflict zones has to do with the tactical and technological
knowledge and experience that terrorist organizations and their fighters accumulate. This knowledge is
likely to be applied to the implementation of terror attacks in the local and international aviation
industry, in the foreseeable future. For instance, in addition to the traditional threats to the aviation
industry posed by rockets, new threats are emerging in technologies such as simulators, drones, laser, as
well as cyberspace capabilities.

Understanding Concept, Causes and Impact

To classify incidents as terrorist attacks, they must be intentional, entail some level of violence or
immediate threat of violence against either people or property, and the perpetrators must be subnational
actors. The actors must be aiming to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal; however, the
pursuit of profit alone with no goal of systematic economic change does not satisfy this criterion. There
must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger
audience than the immediate victims, and the action must be outside of the context of legitimate warfare
activities permitted by international humanitarian law.
Among experts, two explanations for the cause of terrorism exist. The more supported strategic model
asserts that, “terrorists are rational actors who attack civilians for political ends” that are opposed by
established governments. This model assumes that terrorism is resorted to when the expected political
return is greater than with alternative options. However, there are several arguments against the strategic
model, including notions that suggest that terrorists are not rational because they rarely attain their policy
demands by attacking civilians. When their political motives weaken, terrorist organizations resist
disbanding and often create their own relevant political rationale, changing their mission and objectives
and contradicting the model’s assumption that terrorists have consistent and stable political goals.
Organization theory, which hypothesizes that people become terrorists to “develop strong affective ties
with other terrorist members,” and for “social solidarity, not for political return,” is another approach to
terrorism. Those that become terrorists are often struggling economically, are socially alienated, and
sometimes feel that they do not have a place in their communities. A majority of terrorist organizations
are composed of unmarried young men lacking employment.
Hijacking and other forms of aerial terrorism have developed as a means for the militarily weak to
achieve political ends at the expense of the innocent. During the infancy of civil aviation, a passenger’s
principal concerns were the skill of the pilot and the condition of the aircraft. Recent decades have added
a third concern whether or not a fellow passenger intends to use the occasion to focus the media’s
attention on a revolutionary cause. The hijacking or destruction of aircraft is still among the most
effective means of capturing a worldwide audience. Hijackings account for the largest percentage of all
attacks against civil aviation. Other criminal acts include: airport attacks; bombings, attempted
bombings, and shootings on board civil aviation aircraft; general and charter aviation aircraft incidents;
off-airport facility attacks; and shootings at in-flight aircraft. The motives for aircraft hijacking are
diverse.

(See KE Krull, The Threat Among Us –Insiders Intensify Aviation Terrorism (2016), available at
https://www.pnnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-25689.pdf)
(See also Dr. Eitan Azani, Trends in Civil Aviation (2016) available at
https://www.ict.org.il/UserFiles/ICT-trends-aviation-terror-aug-16.pdf)

International Legal Regime & Global Regulations

International law, aimed at subduing threats and preventing attacks on aviation and airport security, is
based upon several multilateral conventions drafted under the auspices of the U.N. International Civil
Aviation Organization among others, including:
 The Chicago Convention
 The Tokyo Convention of 1963 (The Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed
on Board Aircraft) and Protocol (2014) Protocol to the Convention on Offences and Certain
Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft (2014, Montreal Protocol)
 The Hague Convention of 1970 (Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft)
and Protocol (2010)
  The Montreal Convention of 1971; the Montreal Protocol of 1988; and the Montreal Convention
of 1991
 Annex 17 of the Chicago Convention (1974)
 The European Convention of 1977
 The Bonn Declaration of 1978
 Various United Nations Resolutions and Conventions
 ICAO Resolutions and Amendments to Annex 17
 Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection (1991)
 Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to International Civil Aviation (2010,
Beijing Convention)
 Protocol Supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft
(2010, Beijing Protocol).

[Note: Go through the above-enumerated International instruments available online, from the perspective
of the Aviation terrorism. See the following documents in particular:
 UN, Transport-related (civil aviation and maritime) Terrorism Offences (2014), available at
https://www.unodc.org/documents/terrorism/Publications/Module_on_Transport/13-
89032_Ebook_from_DM_9-9-2014.pdf
 Paul Stephen Dempsey, Aviation Security: The Role of Law in the war against terrorism, 41
Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 649 (2003) attached to the email]

RECOMMENDED ESSENTIAL READINGS:

 The International Instruments enumerated above

 Paul Stephen Dempsey, Aviation Security: The Role of Law in the war against terrorism, 41
Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 649 (2003)
 KE Krull, The Threat Among Us –Insiders Intensify Aviation Terrorism (2016), available at
https://www.pnnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-25689.pdf)
 Dr. Eitan Azani, Trends in Civil Aviation (2016) available at
https://www.ict.org.il/UserFiles/ICT-trends-aviation-terror-aug-16.pdf)
 Chapter on “Aircraft Hijacking” in H.O. Agarwal, International Law and Human Rights
 Pablo Mendes De Leon, Introduction to Air Law (10th Ed. 2017)
 Terrorism and War-Related Airplane Crashes Fast Facts, available at
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/24/world/terrorism-and-war-related-airplane-crashes-fast-
facts/index.html
 UN, International Instruments related to the Prevention and Suppression of International
Terrorism (2008), available at
https://www.unodc.org/documents/terrorism/Publications/Int_Instruments_Prevention_and_Supp
ression_Int_Terrorism/Publication_-_English_-_08-25503_text.pdf
 UN, Transport-related(civil aviation and maritime) Terrorism Offences (2014), available at
https://www.unodc.org/documents/terrorism/Publications/Module_on_Transport/13-
89032_Ebook_from_DM_9-9-2014.pdf
 OSCE, Status of the Universal Anti-Terrorism Conventions and Protocols as well as other
International and Regional Legal Instruments related to Terrorism and Co-operation in Criminal
Matters in the OSCE Area, available at https://www.osce.org/atu/17138?download=true