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Aircraft hijacking

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Hijackers inside flightdeck of TWA Flight 847
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 acts as pilot himself. The latter was the case in the September 11, 2001 attacks; hijackers took flying lessons as preparation, and/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 1970s, 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.

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[edit] 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. The first hijack of a commercial airliner probably happened on June 16, 1948, when a failed attempt to gain control of the Miss Macao, a seaplane of a Cathay Pacific subsidiary company, caused it to crash into the sea off Macau. On June 30 1948, a Bulgarian commercial Junkers plane was successfully hijacked to Istanbul by a discharged diplomat and his family, who had to shoot dead the co-pilot (who happened to be the head of Bulgaria's civil aviation) and the radio operator in order to escape to the West. On September 12 1948 a Greek T.A.E Airlines plane was successfully hijacked by 6 pro-communist students who wanted passage to Yugoslavia. The plane landed near Skopje and returned to Thessaloniki later that evening.

Since 1947, 60% of hijackings have been refugee escapes. In 1968-69 there was a massive rise in the number of hijackings. In 1968 there were 27 hijackings and attempted hijackings to Cuba. In 1969 there were 82 recorded hijack attempts worldwide, more than twice the total attempts for the whole period 1947-67. Most were Palestinians using hijacks as a political weapon to publicise their cause and to force the Israeli government to release Palestinian prisoners from jail.

Airliner hijackings have declined since the peak of 385 incidents between 1967-76. In 1977-86 the total had dropped to 300 incidents and in 1987-96 this figure was reduced to 212.

[edit] List of well-known hijackings

See also: List of hijacking of Indian aeroplanes

[edit] Prevention

There has been talk of fortifying cockpit doors to prevent would-be hijackers from entering and gaining control of the aircraft. In the United Kingdom, United States, India and Australia, 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.

United States commercial aircraft pilots now have an option of carrying a pistol on the flight deck, as a last resort to thwart hijack attempts. Opponents proposed that shooting down the aircraft and killing everyone onboard would be more reasonable than a pilot firing a pistol in an airliner at a flight deck intruder. Explosive decompression in an aircraft, however, is a myth, and their objections are mostly hyperbole. [2]

Since "Hi, Jack" and "hijack" are homophones this pronunciation is now widely regarded as a security threat in many airports. Los Angeles International Airport has reminded people not to say "Hi, Jack" or "Hey, Jack", but rather, to say "Hello, Jack" instead.

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.

[edit] Situation after September 11th

Before the September 11, 2001 attacks, plane crews advised passengers to sit quietly in order to increase their chances to survive. 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 11 attacks, the situation for passengers and hijackers has changed. As in the situation 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 nations have stated that they would shoot down hijacked commercial aircraft if it can be assumed that the hijackers intend to use the aircraft in a 9/11-style as a weapon, despite killing innocent passengers onboard. According to reports, US fighter pilots have been training shooting down commercial airliners.[3] Other countries such as Poland have enacted laws or decrees that allow shooting down hijacked aircraft.[4]

[edit] 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. Another reason was 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 German Wikipedia entry, or [5]

The President of Germany, Horst Köhler, himself urged judicial review of the constitutionality of the Luftsicherheitsgesetz after he signed it into law in 2005.

[edit] International law issues

[edit] Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft (Tokyo Convention)

See the United Nations website for full text. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_convention_aircraft.html

[edit] Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (Hague Convention)

Signed in the Hague, on the 16th December 1970. Contains 14 articles relating to what constitutes hijacking and guidelines for what is expected of governments when dealing with hijackings. The convention does not 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 to its place 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. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_convention_aircraft_seizure.html

[edit] Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Montreal Convention)

See the United Nations website for full text. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_convention_civil_aviation.html

[edit] See also

es:Piratería aérea fr:Détournement d'avion nl:Vliegtuigkaping ja:ハイジャック zh:劫机

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