LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Aircraft Hijacking: United States
built 176 days ago
Hijacking in the air... called skyjacking or air piracy, is defined as the forcible commandeering of an aircraft while in flight. In the United States air hijacking is an offense punishable by long prison terms or execution. During the 1960s the incidence of airplane hijackings in the United States became a serious problem. Planes were hijacked by Cuban exiles, by the mentally ill, by criminals fleeing the country, and by those bent upon extorting large sums of money. Beginning in 1968, political terrorists in Europe and the Middle East began to hijack passenger aircraft both for the purposes of publicity and to obtain concessions from governments or the release of imprisoned terrorists.
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Aircraft hijackings prior to the late 1950s bear little relation to the later incidents in the United States.' However, the incidents that began occurring in the late 1950s are relevant. From late 1958 through 1969, aircraft hijacking was predominantly a phenomenon of the Western Hemisphere, centered on Cuba, and many of the hijackings of U.S. planes to Cuba are best understood in that larger context. Of the 177 worldwide hijacking attempts between 1958 and 1969, 80% originated in the Western Hemisphere and 77% either originated in Cuba or were efforts to divert planes to Cuba.
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The Draft Convention's definition of "aircraft in flight" is the same as that found in the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (Hijacking), Dec. 16, 1970, 22 U.S.T. 1641 (1970 Hague Convention), and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Sabotage), Sep. 23, 1971, 24 U.S.T. 564 (1971 Montreal Convention), as well as in the 1952 Rome Convention. The new treaty would ... extend the aviation security conventions' approach of connecting criminal jurisdiction to the opening and closing of the aircraft doors to liability. Notably, though the United States is not party to the Rome Convention, it is party to both the 1970 Hague and 1971 Montreal Conventions.
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It has often been claimed that aircraft hijacking is a "contagious" phenomenon, that the motivation to hijack aircraft spreads from one individual to another as a result of media coverage of hijacking incidents. This article develops a mathematical model of contagion and applies it to aircraft hijackings in the United States between 1968 and 1972. Analyses show that successful hijackings in the United States did generate additional hijacking attempts of the same type (either transportation or extortion). There were no contagion effects of unsuccessful hijacking attempts in the United States or any effects on U.S. hijacking attempts of such attempts outside the United States.
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Aircraft hijacking incidents between the United States and Cuba reached their peak in 1969. These incidents have variously been attributed to terrorism, extortion, flight for political asylum, and transportation between the two countries as a result of the ongoing antagonistic Cuba-United States relations.[1] Subsequent measures by both governments contributed to a gradual reduction of reported incidents towards the mid 1970s. Governmental measures included an amendment to Cuban law which made hijacking a crime in 1970, the introduction of metal detectors in US airports in 1973, and a joint agreement between the US and Cuba signed in Sweden to return or prosecute hijackers.[1]
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Following a 1988 aircraft hijacking the Brazilians found that they were not prepared and the Federal Police were to expand the existing Tactical Operations Command Team (Comando de Operaciones Tacticas). They had inherited the aircraft hijacking mission from the Air Force Search and Rescue SAR units who had that duty in the early 1980's, but lacked judicial authority. There are ... 'military police' units in the different states. These are not Armed Forces police, but rather they are a separate branch of uniformed police from the Federal Police, more as a military-type of police, such as the Gendarmerie units prevalent throughout Europe, or the National Guard in the United States.
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