EXAMINING THE OFFENCE OF AIRCRAFT HIJACKING: AN APPRAISAL UNDER CAMEROONIAN CIVIL AVIATION LAW

Abstract

Aircraft hijacking as an offence against the safety of civil aircrafts is a serious menace against the international community as a whole and Cameroon in particular. The 2001 Law punishing offences against the safety of aircrafts in Cameroon provides an attempt to the definition of the offence of aircraft hijacking, yet with the institution of advanced technology, the definition seems lacking. This Law merely ascribes responsibility to whosoever unlawfully and through violence or threat of violence seizes an aircraft in service or out of service or controls thereof or is an accomplice of a person who commits or attempts to commit any ingredients of the offence. Thus, it does not create or defines the offence as a specific offence under Cameroonian civil aviation law. Determining what will constitute an offence in establishing liability has being a difficult task for the Cameroonian legislator. The objective of this paper is in looking at the position of the law when a matter of aircraft hijacking is concerned. It is of the opinion that the failure of establishing the offence of aircraft hijacking will become difficult in punishing the offender of such a crime. As such, the Cameroonian legislator is under the obligation to amend and enact domestic legislation relating to aircraft hijacking.