This article has been written by Bamba Ceesay Course, pursuing a Certificate Course in Advanced Criminal Litigation & Trial Advocacy from LawSikho.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Over the years, we have witnessed movies portraying criminal acts being committed on aircraft. Often we see a brave hero ending up saving the day and everyone lives happily ever after. As much as movies portray the crimes committed on aircraft, the mere exaggerations meant to entertain rather than educate, do not in most cases reflect the real-life scenario that 2.9 million people that travel by air daily go through on a regular basis. I mean, what are the chances that a person would intend to foresee the chances of a crime being committed in an aircraft especially when that flight is destined to Bali after a year of hard work and dedication to service? HIGHLY UNLIKELY! Yet stats show that in 2017 alone, there were more than 66,000 incidents of unruly or disruptive behaviours reported to the International Air Transport Association. So the golden question, how does one prepare against unruly or disruptive behaviour happening onboard a flight? Simple, know the Law, for the law is valuable not because it is a law but because there is a right in it.
What crimes are commonly committed on aircraft?
The Convention of International Civil Aviation Safeguarding against Acts of Unlawful interference defines a Disruptive passenger as “a passenger, who does not respect the rules of conduct at the airport or on-board a flight or fails to follow the instructions issued by the airport staff or crew members”. A disruptive passenger is someone who by their actions or stated intentions, jeopardizes or might jeopardize the safety of the aircraft, the people aboard it or the properties within.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also made public, a list that is non-exhaustive which highlights acts that fall under disruptive or unruly behaviour on board a flight and they are as follows-
- Consumption of illegal narcotics,
- Smoking,
- Consuming alcohol over the prescribed limit,
- Failure to comply with safety procedures,
- Confronting of crew members or passengers whether verbally or physically,
- Sexually harassing or abusing anyone on board the flight,
- Threatening crew and or other passengers, etc.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) being an organization aiming to promote the interest of various airlines formulated a guide to deal with unruly passengers. This guide is hence called the “Guidance on unruly passengers’ prevention and Management”. This guide was released in the year 2015.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also issued guidelines regarding the handling of unruly passengers.
Jurisdiction over a crime committed on-board in an aircraft
The phenomena of crimes (unruly or disruptive behaviour) onboard an aircraft is not a new one, first attempts to make legislation in this regard happened in 1963, The Tokyo Convention. Ratified by 186 countries inclusive of India, this agreement aimed to bring about uniformity in relation to aviation law amongst member states. Art.1 of the convention states that the Convention shall apply in respect of:
- Offences against penal law.
- Acts which, whether or not they are offences, may or do jeopardize the safety of the aircraft or of persons or property therein or which jeopardize good order and discipline on board.
Art. 3 of the convention bestows jurisdiction as follows:
- The State of registration of the aircraft is competent to exercise jurisdiction over offences and acts committed on board.
- Each Contracting State shall take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction as the State of registration over offences committed on board aircraft registered in such State.
- This Convention does not exclude any criminal jurisdiction exercised in accordance with national law.
The Montreal Convention of 1971 and Montreal Protocol of 1988 and 2014 respectively came as an amendment to the Tokyo Convention. It encouraged that member nations should formulate a mechanism in which disruptive or unruly passengers can be proceeded against. The 1971 convention added a list of actions by unruly or disruptive passengers which would be made penal offences by ratifying states by incorporating the same in their domestic laws. The Montreal Protocol the provisions of the Montreal Convention will apply not only to passengers on board an aircraft but also at the Airport. The 2014 Montreal protocol suggested that member states should put in a mechanism that would allow disruptive passengers to be held accountable especially for:
- Assault or threat to commit assault against the cabin crew,
- Not following lawful instructions given for the safety of the aircraft, cabin crew or passengers by the aircraft commander or someone on his behalf.
The Montreal Protocol also aimed to fill the gap left behind by the Tokyo Convention. The protocol vides the convention extended the jurisdiction over offences committed in an aircraft to third parties i.e. other states in situations where:
- The country which the plane lands subject to the fact that the alleged offender is still on board;
- If an aircraft is leased, the country of the operator.
The Protocol also empowered carriers to seek recovery under domestic laws concerning the damage caused by the disruptive passenger.
Indian Aviation Laws
In India, The Aircraft Rules 1937 vide the Aircraft Act governs the regulation of unruly passengers. The rules merely envisage the ideal behaviour expected from the passengers but no mechanism of holding them accountable for their actions hence it was to be wade through reading the IPC 1860. This also proved to be unsuccessful because of the fact that certain disruptive acts of passengers fell short of being offences as per the IPC thereby paving a way for offenders to walk away freely simply because the law was insufficient for dealing with the situation. A prominent example of this took place in March 2017, The Air India case. In this case, a member of the Maharashtra Parliament assaulted a staff member of Air India causing a vehement rejection amongst the masses for his unruly or disruptive behaviour. This prompted the Indian Government to issue a notification; “Civil Aviation Requirement on Handling of Unruly Passengers” dated 8th September 2017. For the first time, it mandated the Ministry of Home Affairs to maintain a No-Fly list. It even went further to classify unruly behaviour into three levels:
- Level 1: inappropriate physical gestures, verbally harassing passengers, or the crew, unruly intoxication, etc.
- Level 2: Passengers indulging in physically abusive behaviour such as pushing, hitting, grabbing, touching inappropriately, kicking, etc.
- Level 3: Passengers showcasing life-threatening behaviour, via actions such as eye gouging, damaging the aircraft, attempting or actually breaching the flight crew compartment, etc.
If in unfortunate circumstance a passenger displays unruly behaviour, a complaint shall be made to the pilot-in-command who then reports it to an internal committee consisting of:
- Chairman: Retired District & Sessions Judge.
- Member: A representative from a different scheduled airline.
- Member: A representative from the consumer association or a passenger association or a retired officer of Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum.
The committee ought to decide the matter in 30days during which they can choose to ban the passenger from flying for 30 days. During the inquiry into the matter and taking into consideration the level which the behaviour falls into, the committee shall decide how long the travel ban period will be upon completion of the inquiry. Other airlines also have the right to ban such person placed in a No-Fly list from flying to from or within India on basis of their levels as follows:
- Level 1: For a period that could extend to three months.
- Level 2: For a period that could extend to six months.
- Level 3: Without limit but a minimum of two years.
Role of on-board flight staff
The pilot-in-command shall quickly assess if the cabin crew can control the unruly passenger and accordingly relay this information to the airline’s central control on the ground. Airline’s central control shall, in consultation with pilot-in-command, identify the alternate aerodrome for the landing of aircraft as quickly as possible. Security agencies, duty manager at alternate aerodrome and ground staff shall be informed for appropriate action at landing. Upon landing of aircraft, pilot-in-command shall lodge FIR with security agency at aerodrome and hand over the unruly passenger to security agency if a criminal prosecution against the unruly or disruptive passenger is required. The cabin crew is also charged with the duty of collecting evidence from the witnesses in the plane and submit to the authorities for the purpose of criminal prosecution.
The cabin crew and ground staff are to be trained and always to be in possession of procedures to deal with unruly and disruptive passengers. Their role is to detect, defuse, and prevent critical situations about the causes of various types of disruption and handling the situation as well as reporting it. A mechanism to identify incidences of disruptive behaviour and analyse on a continued basis in order to impart enhanced customer skills training to frontline staff which would help in the management of rude and aggressive passengers hence avoiding situations that occur due to long waiting lines, the flight being overbooked, delays and diversion or cancellation, lack of information etc.
The crew is also allowed to an extent to use restraining devices upon exhausting all the other options to restrain the unruly or disruptive passenger. If this proves difficult, other passengers or able-bodied passengers can assist the cabin crew in restraining the unruly or disruptive passenger. The cabin crew must always be firm and exert authority irrespective of the rank or profession of the able-bodied passenger lending a helping hand and the cabin crew must always reiterate this fact as able-bodied passengers lending a helping hand must always act in accordance with the directions given by the cabin crew. The cabin crew must also always control the amount of force used by able-bodied passengers lending a helping hand to subdue an unruly passenger so that it does not become excessive.
Self-defence rights of passengers
Apart from tools such as pepper sprays and others as permitted by flight rules, passengers cannot carry certain tools like guns, knives etc. on board a flight. Passengers are expected to report any incident deemed as threatening to the cabin crew. The cabin crew shall control the situation within the limits of the law and even restrain the person if need be. Passengers can also assist in any way permitted by the cabin crew subject to the instructions of the cabin crew.
Important case laws with regards to aviation In India
In Maneka Gandhi V. UOI, the Honourable Supreme Court emphasized on the fact that Art. 21 of the Indian Constitution can be interpreted to have a wide scope of applicability as deduced by a plethora of case law precedents and in this light, right to travel is also part and parcel of Art.21. It rightfully laid down that the right to free movement is a core element of personal liberty which also includes the right to travel abroad.
In Priya Parameshwaran Pillai V. UOI, the Honourable Supreme Court again reemphasized the fact that the Right to travel abroad is also a fundamental right as enshrined in Art.21.
The above authorities amongst many others are the basis for which any Indian citizen can travel within and outside of India subject to having a passport and visa of course. We must as well acknowledge the fact that just like any other right; the right to travel is also subject to certain limits, one of which is the main point of discussions today, Disruptive or unruly behaviour onboard an aircraft. Such a person dubbed as a Disruptive passenger is added to the No-Fly list, barring him from travelling both locally and internationally.
This also means that no person can curtail the rights of person to travel. If such an incident occurs, the aggrieved person shall have a right to seek remedy against the person in a court of competent jurisdiction.
Conclusion
It is rather unfortunate but inevitable that such incidences occur but as I said earlier, it is better to be prepared for anything than be caught off guard due to the acts of an unruly or disruptive passenger.
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