Pubdate: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 Source: Washington Post (DC) Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company Contact: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491 Author: Don Phillips Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting) Note: U.S. Did Not Ratify U.N. Provision Protecting Civilian Aircraft. PILOTS DECRY MISSIONARY DOWNING AS VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW Civilian pilots around the world have reacted with anger to the downing of a plane carrying a missionary family in Peru, saying the U.S.-Peruvian policy of attacking suspected drug smuggling aircraft is a blatant violation of international law. "Nothing justifies a no-questions-asked destruction of civilian aircraft," said Phil Boyer, president of the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations, which represents 400,000 pilots in 56 countries. "We would have thought the nations of the world would have learned an important lesson from the downing of Korean Air Lines 007 in 1984." Indeed, after the Soviet Union shot down KAL 007, the United States argued vociferously that there was never any justification for firing on a civilian plane. "The technology is available to be cautious and patient before taking such a final action," said Pete West, vice president for government affairs at the National Business Aircraft Association, which opposed President Clinton's 1994 decision to support Peru's policy of downing suspected drug smuggling planes. West added that when he heard that a Peruvian jet, guided by a U.S. surveillance plane, had fired on a single-engine Cessna last week, killing an American missionary and her baby daughter, "my thoughts rushed quickly to the most important argument we and others made against this dangerous approach to drug interdiction: the serious risk to innocent lives." Many pilots associations pointed out that in the mid-1980s a United Nations agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization, made the shooting down of any civilian aircraft a violation of international law. It allowed just one exception: if a civilian plane is engaged in a military attack, such as an attempt to crash into a government facility. The ICAO provision was adopted by more than the 102 countries required for ratification. But the United States never approved it, because some members of Congress and senior officials worried that it could be construed as an admission that the United States was subject to the International Court of Justice. The ICAO provision also made clear that the military of any country has the right to intercept civilian aircraft, and a civilian plane is obliged to follow the military aircraft's instructions. To avoid the communications breakdowns that were thought to be part of the Russian downing of KAL 007, specific procedures and signals were adopted. Those procedures, printed in pilot manuals worldwide, amount to a midair dance in which every wing movement and maneuver has meaning. It also sets a standard for radio contact. "In all situations, the interceptor aircrew will use caution to avoid startling the intercepted aircrew and/or passengers," the procedures say. Nonetheless, communications breakdowns also apparently led to the U.S. military downing of an Iranian civilian aircraft in 1988. "The theme here, whenever we've had a problem, is the failure to communicate," said Irene Howie, a Washington aviation lawyer who was the Federal Aviation Administration's assistant chief counsel for international affairs until 1990. In that job, Howie helped enforce the first Bush administration's strong opposition to any exception to the international ban on using force against civilian aircraft. Repeatedly in the 1980s, members of Congress tried to allow the U.S. Customs Service, the Coast Guard and other agencies to fire on planes suspected of carrying drugs. "It was like a Hydra," Howie said. "One head would be cut off and another would grow." In 1994, the Clinton administration reversed U.S. policy and decided to support the efforts by Peru and Colombia to intercept and, if necessary, shoot down drug-smuggling flights. Congress passed legislation granting immunity from prosecution to U.S. officials who assisted in that effort. "Many of us thought, and still think, that countenancing the Peruvian and Colombian shoot-down policies was a terrible mistake and created an awful precedent," said Jeffrey N. Shane, a lawyer who was assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the Transportation Department in the first Bush administration. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe