Tokyo Convention 1963

 

Throughout aviation history, laws and regulations have been developed with aviation growth. For example, with the growing number of passengers after WWII, we realize that we needed to create international regulations to apply in case of unlawful seizure of an aircraft or other illegal acts committed on board. That is why in 1963, the Tokyo convention of the ICAO was signed by 40 states and came into force in 1969.  This convention is intended to be applied in the case of violation of the penal law or other behaviors or acts that, despite not being punished by the law, put at risk the safety of the flight. This convention is divided into 7 chapters, the first two chapters are about the scope of application and jurisdiction; chapter 3 is about the faculties of the aircraft commander. The commander has the faculty of disembarking or delivering unruly passengers to the competent authorities if he or she deems it appropriate. Also in extreme cases, a flight can be diverted due to passenger behavior.

Chapter four talks about the illegal seizure of the aircraft and chapter five about the powers and duties of states, as well as the procedure to be followed in case of forced disembarking, in short, States must assure the passenger deliver to the competent authorities and report that passenger to the state of the aircraft registration. Finally, chapters six and seven are about other provisions and final clauses.

Even though these regulations were created more than 50 years ago, they could not avoid the terrorism acts that occurred on September 11, 2001; after that date, more regulations and even organizations such as the TSA came up not only in the US but also in the entire world. Now, with the increase of passengers flying every day, it is more common to encounter an unruly passenger that endangers the lives of the rest of the people. 

Reference:

Convention of Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft, September 14, 1963