Everything about Aircraft Hijacking totally explained
Aircraft hijacking (also known as
skyjacking and
aircraft piracy) is the take-over of an
aircraft, by a person or group, usually armed. In most cases the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers.
Alternatively one of the hijackers flies the plane himself. The latter was the case in the
September 11, 2001 attacks on the
World Trade Center; hijackers took flying lessons as preparation, or were selected by
Al-Qaeda based partly on flying skills.
In one case the official pilot hijacked the plane: in October, 1998, on an
Air China flight from
Beijing to
Kunming in
Yunnan, he flew to
Taiwan after threatening to crash the plane killing the passengers if the other members of the crew prevented him from flying to Taiwan.
Unlike the hijacking of land vehicles or ships, skyjacking is usually not perpetrated in order to rob the cargo. Rather, most aircraft hijackings are committed to use the passengers as
hostages in an effort to obtain transportation to a given location, to hold them for
ransom, or, as in the case of the
American planes that were
hijacked to Cuba during the 1960s and 70s, the release of comrades being held in prison. Another common motive is
publicity for some cause or grievance. Since the use of hijacked planes as suicide missiles in
September 11, 2001 attacks, hijacking is a different kind of security threat — though similar usages had apparently been attempted by
Samuel Byck in 1974 and on
Air France Flight 8969 in 1994.
Hijackings for hostages have usually followed a pattern of negotiations between the hijackers and the authorities, followed by some form of settlement -- not always the meeting of the hijackers' original demands -- or the storming of the aircraft by armed police or special forces to rescue the hostages. Prior to September, 2001, the policy of most airlines was for the pilot to comply with hijackers' demands in the hope of a peaceful outcome. Since then, policies have reversed course, in favor of arming and armoring the cockpit.
Options for preventing hijacking include screening to keep weapons off the airplane, putting
air marshals on the flight, and fortifying the cockpit to keep hijackers out.
Background
The first recorded aircraft hijack was on
February 21,
1931, in
Arequipa,
Peru.
Byron Rickards flying a
Ford Tri-Motor was approached on the ground by armed revolutionaries. He refused to fly them anywhere and after a ten day stand-off Rickards was informed that the revolution was successful and he could go in return for giving one of their number a lift to
Lima.
Most hijackings have not been so farcical.
Prevention
Cockpit doors on most commercial airlines have been strengthened, and are now bullet resistant.
In the
United Kingdom,
United States,
Australia and
India,
air marshals have also been added to some flights to deter and thwart hijackers. In addition, some have proposed remote control systems for aircraft whereby no one on board would have control over the plane's flight.
In the case of a serious risk that an aircraft will be used for flying into a target, it may have to be shot down, killing all passengers and crew, to prevent more serious consequences.
One task of
airport security is to prevent hijacks by screening passengers and keeping anything that could be used as a
weapon (even smaller objects like nail clippers for example) off aircraft.
Situation after September 11
Before the
September 11, 2001 attacks, plane crews advised passengers to sit quietly in order to increase their chances of survival. An unofficial protocol emerged, in which civilians and government authorities understood that in most cases violence from the hijackers was unlikely as long as they achieved their goal (often, as during the rash of American incidents in the 1970s, a trip to Cuba).
Since the
September 11th attacks, the situation for passengers and hijackers has changed. As in the case of
United Airlines Flight 93, where an airliner crashed into a field during a fight between passengers and hijackers, passengers now have to calculate the risks of passive cooperation, not only for themselves but for those on the ground. Future hijackers may encounter greater resistance from passengers, making a hijacking more unlikely but, if they happen, bloodier.
Several states have stated that they'd shoot down hijacked commercial aircraft if it can be assumed that the hijackers intend to use the aircraft in a 9/11-style attack, despite killing innocent passengers onboard. According to reports, US fighter pilots have been training to shoot down hijacked commercial airliners should it become necessary.
(External Link
) Other countries such as
Poland have enacted laws or decrees that allow the shooting down of hijacked planes.
(External Link)
Germany: Shooting down aircraft and the constitution
In a widely regarded decision by the
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, in February 2006, it struck down a law - "Luftsicherheitsgesetz" or "Air security law" - claiming such preventive measures were unconstitutional and would essentially be state-sponsored murder, even if such an act would save many more lives on the ground. The main reasoning behind this decision was that the state would be effectively taking the lives of innocent hostages in order to avoid a terrorist attack. The Court also ruled that the
Minister of Defense is constitutionally not entitled to act in terrorism matters, as this is the duty of the state and federal police forces.
See the, or (External Link)
The
President of Germany,
Horst Köhler, himself urged judicial review of the constitutionality of the Luftsicherheitsgesetz after he signed it into law in 2005.
International law issues
Tokyo Convention
See the United Nations website for full text on "Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft".
(External Link)
Hague Convention
Signed at The Hague on
16 December 1970, the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft contains 14 articles relating to what constitutes hijacking, and guidelines for what is expected of governments when dealing with hijackings. The convention doesn't apply to customs, law enforcement or military aircraft, thus its scope appears to exclusively encompass civilian aircraft. Importantly, the convention only comes into force if the aircraft takes off or lands in a place different than its country of registration. For aircraft with joint registration, one country is designated as the registration state for the purpose of the convention.
See the United Nations website for full text.
(External Link)
Montreal Convention
See the United Nations website for full text on "Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation".
(External Link)Further Information
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