Aviation Security

Nearly all paragraphs of the Chicago Convention concern aviation safety and its wide-scale accomplishment. At the same time, the Convention barely mentions aviation security. Moreover, the word ‘security’—in a completely different sense—appears only once in the provisions of the Convention, although aviation security following safety figures is the second most significant strategic pillar and a constant challenge for ICAO. Today it is barely conceivable but, at the time of drafting the Convention, issues of security did not generate special concern in the world of civil aviation. At that time nobody could seriously envisage that one day terrorists would hijack airplanes or use them as weapons, or unruly passengers would cause everyday problems. Therefore, the contracting States, bypassing the amendment of the Convention, regulated security constituting a prominent area of civil aviation under Annex 17, taking effect in the summer of 1975.