Tougher controls on unruly air passengers will be tabled at the Legislative Council on March 9, the Security Bureau says. The Aviation Security (Amendment) Bill 2005 will also extend Hong Kong's jurisdiction over such acts committed aboard non-Hong Kong-controlled aircraft landing in the city.

The Aviation Security Ordinance is the principal legislation on aviation security, prohibiting acts threatening to international civil aviation and giving effect to international air security conventions. It mainly addresses serious offences like hijacking and sabotage.

To tighten the legislation, the bill adds new offences to the ordinance to deal with unruly passengers. Proposed offences include obstruction of crew, failure to comply with safety instructions given by the aircraft commanders or crew, disorderly behaviour, tampering or interfering with aircraft equipment or systems, intoxication, smoking, and use of prohibited electronic devices.

Extended jurisdiction

The bill also proposes to extend Hong Kong's jurisdiction over these and other offences related to assault, intimidation, sexual assault and criminal damage committed outside Hong Kong aboard non-Hong Kong-controlled aircraft set to land in the city.

Under the bill, the exercise of the extraterritorial jurisdiction over non-Hong Kong-controlled aircraft will be subject to some restrictive conditions being met, one of which is that the commander of the foreign aircraft must have made a request to Hong Kong Police to take action against a certain suspected offender.

The Aviation Security Committee and Aviation Advisory Board back the early enactment of the legislation, which will be gazetted tomorrow.