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Ethiopian airlines hijacking - the international perspective

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Notes

  1. The legal term for “hijacking” is “unlawful seizure of aircraft”. See Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft, signed at Tokyo on 14 September 1963, ICAO Doc 8364, at Article 11.

  2. This is the 10th such hijacking by a crew member in the last 63 years in which air crew sought asylum. See Marta Falconi, Heidi Vogt and Andrew Morse, Authorities: Co-Pilot Took Control of Ethiopian Airlines Plane, Wanted Asylum, The Wall Street Journal, 17 February 2014.

  3. Supra, note 2.

  4. Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, signed on 16 December 1970, ICAO Doc 8920.

  5. Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation, signed on 23 September 1971, ICAO Doc 8966.

  6. Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed at Chicago on 7 December 1944. See ICAO Doc 7300/8, 2006. Article 83 bis states that when an aircraft registered in a contracting State is operated pursuant to an agreement for the lease, charter or interchange of the aircraft or any similar arrangement by an operator who has his principal place of business or, if he has no such place of business, his permanent residence in another contracting State, the State of registry may, by agreement with such other State, transfer to it all or part of its functions and duties as State of registry in respect of that aircraft. The State of registry is then relieved of responsibility in respect of the functions and duties transferred.

  7. Article 5.2 provides that: “ Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 1, paragraph 3, an aircraft shall for the purposes of this Chapter, be considered to be in flight at any time from the moment when all its external doors are closed following embarkation until the moment when any such door is opened for disembarkation. In the case of a forced landing, the provisions of this Chapter shall continue to apply with respect to offences and acts committed on board until competent authorities of a State take over the responsibility for the aircraft and for the persons and property on board”.

  8. Article 6.2 of the Tokyo Convention provides that: “ The aircraft commander may require or authorize the assistance of other crew members and may request or authorize, but not require, the assistance of passengers to restrain any person whom he is entitled to restrain. Any crew member or passenger may also take reasonable preventive measures without such authorization when he has reasonable grounds to believe that such action is immediately necessary to protect the safety of the aircraft, or of persons or property therein”.

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Correspondence to Ruwantissa Abeyratne.

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Abeyratne, R. Ethiopian airlines hijacking - the international perspective. J Transp Secur 7, 191–198 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12198-014-0138-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12198-014-0138-2

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