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The Menace of Aerial Hijacking and The International Air Laws
The Menace of Aerial Hijacking and The International Air Laws
The Menace of Aerial Hijacking and The International Air Laws
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This article has been authored by Aanya Anvesha and Aryan Sharma, second year students
at Institute of Law, Nirma University.
One of the most troubling byproducts of the aviation age has been the unlawful seizure
of, or interference with the control of an aircraft. Incidents of Aerial Hijacking took place
not long after international air travel got commonplacebecause of the increased use of
aircraft, now an indispensable means for travel, giving rise to many problems. Aircraft
hijacking attacks all nations indiscriminately, as such incidents impact foreign relations
addition to putting human lives and property at risk, aircraft hijacking sabotages the ight
safety of other airlines that use the airspace, a ect the trust of people towards air travel,
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The major motivations behind the unlawful seizure of an aircraft may be:
sick, being poor, being homesick, or taking somebody else’s belongings in one’s
possession.
2) Political motive: This motive allows hijacking to achieve political objectives by taking
3) Refugee motive: The hijacker with this motive commits the crime because he wants to
take shelter in another country as he is unhappy with the state of government in his
home country.
The responsibility of a nation to resolve an event of aircraft hijacking has been stated
These conventions were brought in place to address the objective of punishing o ences
in the aviation sector. Some of these conventions are the Geneva Convention of 1958, the
Tokyo Convention of 1963, The Hague Convention of 1970 and the Montreal Convention
of 1971 .
A. Geneva Convention
Geneva Convention Regarding Open Seas, 1958 does not provide much information
about aircraft hijacking. Moreover,it uses the term "aircraft piracy" to refer to the practice
of hijacking. This erroneously suggests that the act of aircraft hijacking is piratical and
therefore, an established o ense under general international law. Article 15 of the Geneva
Convention gives a traditional meaning of the term piracy and it can be understood from
the said article that piracy is committed for a personal end, directed against another ship
or aircraft, and executed on the high seas or in a place outside the jurisdiction of any
state. All these elements do not apply to the present-day practice of hijacking. Thus,
under this article, if an act of hijacking is committed with any other motive other than
personal goal would not be punishable. Moreover, hijacking has to be occurred within the
air space of a state and not necessarily in the air space of another state.
B. Tokyo Convention
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Signed in 1963, Tokyo Convention contains Article 11 which de nes aircraft hijacking as an
restore the lawful control of an aircraft. Paragraph 2 of the same article says that if a
hijacked plane lands in a contracting state, it would be the responsibility of such state to
allow the a ected passengers and crew to continue their journey as soon as “practicable”
It is pertinent to note that although these provisions are aimed at the resumption of
fall short of providing a solution for the prevention of Hijacking. It is left to the discretion
of the contracting state to prosecute the o ender or extradite him at another state’s
request, but this convention makes none of these actions an obligation on the
contracting state. There is also no prescription of adequate punitive measures and thus is
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), after recognizing that the Tokyo
Convention was not much of a help in the issue of creating deterrence, took steps to ll
the gaps and the end product was the Hague Hijacking Convention.
Article I of The Hague Convention de nes what constitutes an o ense and limits the
iii. the hijacker uses force or threat of force to seize control of the aircraft.
Hence, this would exclude cases involving armed attacks directed against air facilities or
aircraft not in- ight like the attack on an El Al Jetliner, 1968. Article 3 further limits the
Convention to not include a case involving military, police, and customs aircrafts services.
The Convention still fails to recognize the act of aerial hijacking as an international crime
Concluding Remarks
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In the 1960s and 1970s, politically motivated aircraft seizures became commonplace. This
led to enhancements in security measures and protocols and this is the reason why
incidents of airline hijacking today are much rarer. However, there is no assurance that
such hijacking incidents or threats of hijacking incidents would never arise in the future.
enable aircraft hijacking. The above-mentioned laws that are in place today are of little
relevance as they are inadequate to deal with all the modern problems of aerial hijacking
and also fall short to create a deterring e ect for future events. The loopholes in security
legislations of countries and the punishments prescribed not being deterrent a ects
The most regretful shortcoming of the above-mentioned laws is that the States have a
prerogative right to grant the o ending hijackers political asylum in its territory if it
Human Rights in 1966, every natural person has the right to ask for asylum. Hijackers will
be immune from any extradition or prosecution if they are granted such asylum.
Enforcement of such conventions is also di cult on states that are not a party to these
conventions as international law does not provide a way to force an obligation on a non-
the 1969 Vienna convention on the law of treaties. The use of an aviation boycott as a
sanction is also delicate as it might ruin foreign relations. Hence, the international
community has to cooperate in coming up with uniform legislation that covers up the
eradicate the crime of Aerial Hijacking from its root, the existing loopholes in international
and national laws should be xed and changed keeping in mind the global needs.
International Law
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