Legal issues relating to unruly passengers
The Task Force on Legal Aspects of Unruly Passengers completed its work to update ICAO Circular 288 — Guidance Material on the Legal Aspects of Unruly/Disruptive Passengers, following the adoption of the Protocol to Amend the Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft (Montréal Protocol of 2014) pursuant to the resolution of the Diplomatic Conference. A draft Manual updating Circular 288, together with a report of the work of the Task Force over the course of four meetings, were presented to the 37th Session of the Legal Committee (4 to 7 September 2018). The Legal Committee supported and appreciated the work of the Task Force and agreed with its recommendations that: the guidance material updating ICAO Circular 288 be in the form of a manual; the Organization establish a repository of States’ criminal legislation on unruly and disruptive passenger offences (with the links to Member States’ relevant websites); a survey be conducted by the Secretariat enquiring from Member States as to what administrative sanctions or comparable regimes they have established to deal with unruly and disruptive passengers; and that the Organization review the approach on use of the terms “unruly” and “disruptive”, with a view to alignment among ICAO publications. On
7 November 2018, the Council noted the report of the Legal Committee without comment on the Draft Manual, which will be published in 2019.
