Endangering civil aviation security and safety

(1) A person who in respect of any aircraft registered in Belize, or flying in or from Belize or in service in Belize, unlawfully and intentionally, (a) seizes or exercises control over the aircraft by force or threat thereof or any other form of intimidation; (b) performs an act of violence against a person on board the aircraft if that act is likely to endanger the safe operation or flight of the (c) destroys the aircraft or causes damage to such aircraft or to its cargo or passengers, which is likely to endanger the safe operation or flight of the aircraft; Civil Aviation Security Act [CAP. 239:01 25 (d) places or causes to be placed on the aircraft, by any means whatsoever, a device, explosive or substance which is likely to destroy the aircraft, or cause damage to the aircraft or its cargo or passengers which endangers or is likely to endanger the operation of flight of the (e) destroys or seriously damages aeronautical facilities or seriously interferes with their operation, if such act is likely to endanger the safe operation or flight of an aircraft; or (f) communicates information, knowing the information to be false and under circumstances in which the information may be reasonably believed, thereby endangering the safe operation or flight of an aircraft; (g) commits an act of unlawful interference, commits an offence and is liable, on conviction on indictment, (i) to imprisonment for twenty years; or (ii) if the death of any person results from any act prohibited by this section, to be sentenced to death. (2) For the purposes of this Act– (a) the period during which an aircraft is in flight shall be deemed to include any period from the moment when all its external doors are closed following embarkation until the moment when any such door is opened for disembarkation, and, in the case of a forced landing, any period until the competent authorities take over 26 responsibility for the aircraft and for the persons and property on board; and (b) an aircraft shall be taken to be in service during the whole of the period which begins with the pre-flight preparation of the aircraft for a flight and ends twenty-four hours after the aircraft lands having completed that flight, and also at any time (not falling within that period) while, in accordance with paragraph (a) the aircraft is in flight. (3) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under sub-section (1) (f) to prove– (a) that he believed, and had reasonable grounds for believing, that the information was true; or (b) that, when he communicated the information, he was lawfully employed to perform duties which consisted of or included the communication of information and that he communicated the information in good faith in the performance of those duties.