IF A CRIME IS COMMITTED IN AN AIRCRAFT?

We have often seen in movies, the portrayal of criminal acts on an aircraft. There the male protagonist becomes the hero and saves the day. But such movies are merely a source of entertainment rather than infotainment. It does not give us the reality check that approx 2.9 million people travel via air on a regular basis. I mean what is the possibility for a person who intends to go to the Maldives for a vacation after a year of hard work & dedication to foresee a crime happening on his boarded flight? That’s HIGHLY UNLIKELY! Yet the statistics show that only in the year 2017, approx. 66,000 cases of unruly behaviors were reported to International Air Transportation. Hence the golden question arises, how shall someone be prepared against unruly behaviors in the flight? The answer is by Knowing your rights & national laws.

COMMONLY COMMITTED CRIMES ON AIRCRAFT

According to ‘The International Civil Aviation Safeguarding Against Unlawful Interference’, a disruptive passenger is defined as “a passenger, who does not respect the rules of conduct at the airport or in a flight or fails to follow the instructions issued by the airport staff or crew members”. An unruly passenger is also the one who with his intentions or actions jeopardize the safety of the aircraft & the passengers in it or the property.

IATA – The International Air Transport Association has also laid down some of the acts that fall under disruptive behaviors on a flight. They are:-

1. Smoking
2. Consumption of Illegal Narcotics
3. Failure to comply with safety procedures.
4. Consuming alcohol over the prescribed limit.
5. Sexually harassing or abusing anyone on board the flight.
6. Threatening crew or other passengers.
7. Confronting of crew members or passengers- verbally, physically.
8. Theft.

The International Air Transport Association is an organization that aims to safeguard the interests of various airlines. Hence, they issued a guideline in 2015, to deal with such disruptive passengers. This guide is called ‘The guidance on unruly passengers’- prevention & management.

JURISDICTION OVER A CRIME COMMITTED ON-BOARD IN AN AIRCRAFT

A lot of prior attempts have been made in order to create legislation against unruly behaviors on board a flight. The first attempt was made in 1963 in Tokyo. It was ratified by 186 countries including India. The aim was to attain uniformity in relation to the aviation laws in all states.

INDIAN AVIATION LAWS

In India, the aircraft rules 1937 only described the ideal behavior of the passengers and not the actions are taken on when the passengers exhibit disruptive behaviors. Hence, it was a big failure as there were no grounds made on which a person’s unruly behavior can be termed as an offense. It was after the incident of Air India in 2017,  where a Maharashtrian Parliament member assaulted a staff member of Air India which caused a vehement rejection amongst the masses of his unruly behavior. This prompted the Indian Govt. to issue a notification – “Civil Aviation requirement on handling unruly passengers”. For the first time ever it mandated the ministry of Home affairs to maintain a ‘no-fly list. It then classified the unruly behaviors under 3 levels:

Level 1: Inappropriate physical gestures, verbally harassing passengers or the crew, unruly intoxication, etc. 

Level 2: Passengers indulging in physically abusive behaviors such as pushing, hitting, grabbing, touching inappropriately, kicking, etc.

Level 3: Passengers showcasing life-threatening behaviors, via actions such as eye gouging, damaging the aircraft, attempting or actually breaching the flight crew compartment, etc.

If in an unfortunate circumstance, a passenger shows unacceptable & disruptive behavior, a complaint must be made to the pilot-in-command & he then reports it to the internal committee. The internal committee consists of:-

1. Chairman : He is a retired district & Sessions Judge.
2. A member representative from a different scheduled airline.
3.  A member representative from the consumer association or a passenger association.

The committee then decides the matter in 30 days in which they can choose to ban the person from traveling for 30 days. While inquiry, they analyze, under which level the person’s behavior falls into & on the basis of that they decide the period for which the person shall be banned from traveling. Other airlines also have the right to ban that person placed I a “No-fly” list from flying to or within India on the basis of their levels as follows:-

• LEVEL 1 : For a period that could extend upto 3 months.
• LEVEL 2 : For a period that could extend upto 6 months.
• LEVEL 3 : For an unlimited period but a minimum of 2 years.

If any such unruly incidents occur then the aggrieved person shall have a right to ask for a remedy against the accused in court.

CONCLUSION

 The crimes happen anywhere, the perpetrators do not worry about the place or the people. Hence, this is rather unfortunate but inevitable. Therefore, we shall be prepared for anything & everything instead of getting caught off guard. We should also know our rights & to defend ourselves in such conditions.