Hijacking and Terror in Sky

Hijacking is not a recent phenomenon though the attention of the international community has been focused on it only after the hijacking of IC-814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar and now hijacking of four planes in America and subsequent attack on WTC and Pentagon. The first recorded incident of hijacking took place in 1930 when an aircraft which landed at an aerodrome in Peru was seized by army rebels who demanded to be flown to Chile. Since then several hundred incidents of hijacking have taken place resulting in many cases in the destruction of aircraft, death of crew members and of passengers as well as the hijacker(s). To begin with the incidents were few in number and did not involve significant acts of violence. In the sixties, beginning with the first ‘Cuban’ hijacking in 1961, the problem became more devious. Attempts to formulate legal measures to deal specifically with the problem began in 1962 when the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) considered a draft convention on offences on board aircraft, criminal jurisdiction and the rights and duties of the aircraft commander. In March 1962, the United States submitted a proposal to be included in the draft convention a provision to deal with unlawful seizure of aircraft. This work is a pioneering effort which deals with the hijacking and terror in the sky.