A new global treaty that gives authorities at an airliner’s destination power to prosecute unruly passengers on international flights went into effect January 1 for 46 countries, but not for the United States.
The new treaty, called Montreal Protocol 2014, was designed to deal with situations where a passenger gets out of hand on a flight and must be turned over to police on arrival. The previous rules, the 1963 Tokyo Convention, gave jurisdiction belonged to the country where the plane is registered, but in some cases, neither the start nor the end of the flight is in the ‘home’ country.
The Tokyo Convention was ratified by 186 nations, the U.S. among them; many more may join MP14 now that it is in effect. The U.S. reason for not signing on is not clear, but many in the industry believe it is because MP14 limits the authority of security personnel such as the U.S. federal air marshals to acting only if an incident is taking place, and not as a preventive measure.
