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U.S. Attorneys' Manual

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U.S. Attorneys' Manual
Criminal Resource Manual

1402. Aircraft Piracy And Other Title 49 Offenses -- 1984 Aircraft Sabotage Act

Part B of Chapter XX of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (Pub. L. No. 98-473, October 12, 1984), contains the Aircraft Sabotage Act. The purpose of the Aircraft Sabotage Act was to implement fully the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation (also known as the Montreal Convention). See Treaties and Other International Acts Series, No. 7570 (T.I.A.S. 7570); 24 U.S.T. 564. While the Aircraft Sabotage Act made several changes to 18 U.S.C. § 32 (Destruction of aircraft and related facilities) (see this Manual at 1421), the act also made several significant changes to various provisions of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, as amended.

The legislative history of the Aircraft Sabotage Act appears at pages 13-18 of the Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Four Drafts of Proposed Legislation to Attack the Pressing and Urgent Problem of International Terrorism, H.R. Doc. No. 211, 98th Cong., 2d Sess.; in S. Rep. No. 619 on S. 2623, the Aircraft Sabotage Act, 98th Cong., 2d Sess.; and 130 Cong. Rec. E-4567 to E-4568 (daily ed. November 14, 1984).

[updated August 1999] [cited in Criminal Resource Manual 1421; USAM 9-63.100]