Hijacking - Airplane Hijacking, Ship Hijacking
policy law force journal
The seizure of a commercial vehicle—airplane, ship, or truck—by force or threat of force.
Hijacking is the modern term for "piracy." It is derived from the phrase "High, Jack!" which is a command to raise one's hands before being robbed. The word gained popular currency during PROHIBITION (1920–33), when bootleggers commandeered truckloads of liquor from each other, and reappeared when political activists began to seize commercial airplanes in the 1960s.
FURTHER READINGS
Karber, Phillip A. 2002. "Reconstructing Global Aviation in an Era of the Civil Aircraft as a Weapon of Destruction." Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 781.
Niles, Mark C. 2002. "On the Hijacking of Agencies (and Airplanes): The Federal Aviation Administration, 'Agency Capture,' and Airline Security." American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy, and the Law 381.
Additional Topics
In addition to this agreement, the United States, in 1961, made the hijacking of an airplane a federal crime. Under the Aircraft Piracy Act (18 U.S.C.A. § 32), the attempted or successful execution of the following actions is considered hijacking: damaging an aircraft; placing or bringing a destructive device or substance on an aircraft; damaging or interfering with an air navigation facili…
Ship hijacking is rare, but the seizure of the Achille Lauro proved that it can happen. The Italian cruise ship was commandeered on October 7, 1985, by four members of a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The hijackers boarded the ship posing as tourists, and waited until the ship was off the Egyptian coast before taking its crew and passengers hostage. They threatened to kill the h…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments