Anthony Omoh
29 October 2009
One thing that has become clear in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Act 2006 is the vagueness of some aspects especially those that have to do with handling unruly passengers and maybe even unruly crew in an aircraft, grounded or airborne.
An unruly passenger in general terms refers to a disruptive and/or violent behaviour perpetuated, typically during flight by passengers and more recently by crew members operating the flight. It is sometimes referred to as "air rage."
It can also be defined as any behavior on board an aircraft which interferes with the crew in the conduct of their duties and disrupts the safe operation of an aircraft.
An unruly crew embodies all the vices that could go on with the cabin and cockpit crew ranging from fighting on board the airraft as seen recently in Air India as well as and not limited to the use of electronic equipment not part of the cockpit incluing mobile phones and laptops.
Unruly behaviours for passengers include turning off the smoke detector in the rest room of an aircraft in order to smoke their cigarettes.
Others include refusing to buckle seat belts; use of abusive or threatening words; intentionally interfering with the duties of a crew member; wearing of offensive or inappropriate clothes; viewing of pornographic material, or having sex in lavatory; and drunkenness.
Reacting to the issue, Dele Ore, president, Aviation Round Table, a body of industry professionals, and chairman, Airports Concession Steering Committee, disclosed that unruly passengers are punishable by the law, stressing that passengers should desist from displaying disruptive acts when on board an aircraft.
"I wonder why a passenger will use his laptop or any other electronic gadget while on board after announcements by crew members to turn off all phones and electronics," he said. "This is unruly for it has its hazards."
Mr. Ore advised air travellers to be knowledgeable of the necessary procedures before boarding, while on board, and when disembarking from an aircraft.
Despite, Mr. Ore's submissions, many countries seem to have anticipated forms of unruly behaviour and have put in place, adequate measures to check such occurrences and explicit punitive measures in case the laid down rules are broken.
In a paper delivered by industry participant and former president, National Cabin Crew Association (NACCA), Olumide Ohunayo recently he stated that there are a number of existing treaties or agreements cited when dealing with disruptive passengers, including Tokyo Convention (1963), Hague Convention (1970) and Montréal Protocol (1971).
He however said that the major drawback of these treaties is their lack of suitability for prosecuting unruly passengers; this has made different states develop laws to curb this menace.
United Kingdom (UK):
The law of the land governs the actions of the Police and the Courts. In the UK the Civil Aviation Act 1982 derives from the Tokyo Convention. Section 92 of the Act provides UK courts with the jurisdiction to deal with offences committed on board UK registered aircraft wherever in the world the offence takes place.
Section 94 of the Civil Aviation Act deals with the power invested in the aircraft Commander to ensure the safety of his aircraft. The powers of the Commander are designed to maintain good order and discipline on board the aircraft and include the physical restraint of troublemakers.
The powers of the Commander may only be exercised from the time doors are closed after passengers have boarded until the doors are opened for disembarkation at destination - or diversion! When the doors are open the law is enforced by the local Police rather than by the Commander.
The Air Navigation (No 2) Order 1995 provides specific laws to protect the crew and fellow passengers from disruptive behaviour and prohibit passengers from:
Acting in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft or any person on board, - Article 55. Causing or permitting an aircraft to endanger persons or property - Article 56.
Boarding an aircraft while drunk or getting drunk on board, - Article 57.
Every person on board an aircraft must obey the lawful commands of the Commander - Article 59.
The UK government and the CAA in September 1999 further amended the Air Navigation Order with Article 59A cited below.
No person shall while on an aircraft: A - Use any threatening, abusive or insulting words towards a member of the crew.
B -behave in a threatening, abusive, insulting or disorderly manner towards the crew of the aircraft; or,
C -intentionally interfere with the performance of a crew member of his duties
Penalties
Offences -59A-(a) & (b) - attract a £2,500 Fine and (c) £5,000 Fine by a Magistrate Or - an unlimited Fine by a Crown Court and /or 2 years in prison.
Offences committed on non-UK aircraft can be dealt with in the UK if the next landing of the aircraft is in the UK and if the crime would be a crime in the state of registration of that aircraft.
This second part of the Act, which deals with foreign aircraft landing in UK, was omitted from the original Act and was introduced as an amendment in 1996 after Qantas pointed out the omission.
United States of America
Criminal penalties of a fine of up to US$11,000 or 20 years imprisonment apply to cases where passengers assault, intimidate or interfere with or lessen a crew member's ability to perform his or her duty. Civil penalties for similar offenses carry a maximum fine of US$1,100 per violation. Also, some other countries such as Canada, Malaysia, and South Africa etc have also introduced laws to deal with unruly passengers.
However Nigeria is a different scenario altogether as Part 14 Annex 58 of the NCAA Act, states that "the authority may by regulations prohibit certain acts which constitute unruly or indecent behaviour on board aircraft in or over Nigeria and such regulations may include appropriate criminal sanctions".
This, Ohunayo says, does not state anything and is vague at best making it difficult for authorities and law enforcers to go ahead and prosecute successfully stating that there is a need to review the act and fine tune major safety details in it in a bid to provide safer flights like some other countries.
Meanwhile, unruly passengers are not the only cause of worry in air travel imagine putting your life in the hands of an unruly crew as seen a fortnight ago when a mid-air fight allegedly broke out between the two pilots and cabin crew members in an Air India flight IC884.
The Air India pilot and a co-pilot were arrested after being accused of molesting an air hostess in the cockpit that sparked a scuffle with other crew members.
The same airline also recorded another bad publicity as a commander of a plane on the airline's Mumbai-New York route reported for duty under the influence.
"One of the four pilots of the flight failed the breathalyzer test conducted by the airline doctors as part of pre-flight checks," an unnamed source told the newspaper.
The pilot was replaced, but flight AI-141 scheduled to leave on Monday at 12.45am (0615 AEDT) was delayed by 45 minutes.
Then there was a first officer of Northwest Airlines Flight 188 that missed its destination by 150 miles has denied a disagreement with his captain or a nap in the cockpit, claiming passengers were never in danger.
But two days after the pair flew past their destination as air-traffic controllers tried frantically to reach them, pilot Richard Cole refused to say what made them forget to land.
These are rapidly increasing scenarios that tend to question safety in an aircraft not just from the unruliness of passengers but of the indiscipline of crew members.
Industry experts are looking at a situation where these kinds of behaviours from pilots and cabin crew are checked before they can cause major safety concerns especially in Nigeria where a lot of corner cutting takes place.
Many also call for the basic pre-flight test like the breathalyzer to check the pilots state of sobriety as well as other checks especially in the running of the cockpit to avoid fight scenarios and other vices.
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