Use of Weapons Against Civil Aircraft: Case Study of IR655 in the Ught of International Law by Mansour Jabbari Gharabagh A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Grad~~te Studies and Research in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Laws Institute of Air and Space Law McGIII University Montreal, auebec Canada November, 1992 (c) Mansour Jabbarl Gharabagh, 1992 • Shorhn.d V.r!uon of th, Th.llS l'. li l Il u r ,- n <lITt f:' : ~lar.'- [Iur .1 ,.1ld, tir l GlJcIr ah agit 1h l' Der M t rr. P Il t : 1 1. " t Jt li f '" (l f (~l r il n d Spa (Ii' 1 ê\ vi /IPqfPE' ~oltth: 1 L • M. 1 l mp cd (, r d d Il a il 0 n : ,1 \1 Ti t? ! '1 9 ,; r h (' t l t 1 p [J f t h P. 1 h ~ c: l " : Un of Wuponl A91inat Civil Aircrlftl Can Study of IRt.55 ln the Llght of Inhrnabonal Law fi Il (1 rt I? ri I? cl ver S l (1 Tl {) t t Il ft t h p~.J ~': L.gal Aspects of the IR655 tragedy ABSTRACT Iran Air Fhght 655 was termlnated by two missile attack on July 3, 1988 The aim of this study is ta analyze the aeranautlcal Incident of July 3, 1988 (IR655) fram the pOint of view of general International law and air law Speclflc attention is glven ta the consideration of the case by the Councii of ICAO, the legal co­ ordination of civil/mlhtary fllght operation and the legal status of NOT AM The study also comments on the concept of self-defense ln Internatlonallaw and responsibility of state. The conclUSion outllnes the scope of the decislon of the Councii and compares it with the Council's previous decisions. ii Résumé Le vol Iran Air 655 s'acheva à la suite d'une attaque par deux missiles le 3 Juillet 1988. Le but de cette étude est d'analyser cet incident d'un point de vue de droit internatIonal et de droIt aénen. Une attentIon particulière est portée à l'opinion du Conseil de l'OACI sur cette affaire, la co-ordInation légale des opérations en vol militaires et civils ainsi que le statut Jundique du NOT AM . L'étude commente également le concept d'autodéfense en droit international ainsi que la responsabilité des Etats. La conclusIon souligne la portée de la décision du Conseil et la compare avec les déciSIon précédentes du Conseil. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENr 1wish ta express my sincere gratitude ta Dr. Michael Milde, Director of the Instltute ef Air and Space Law, and Thesis superviser, for hls encouragement and valuable academic criticisms, whose patient supervision throughout my year at McGiII University has been invaluable. 1 thank Ms. Ginette Van Leynseele, Co-ordinator of the Graduate studles, for her help during my studies at McGiII University. 1would like ta express my gratitude to Professor David Stevene for supporting my application ta the law scheel. 1 am grateful also te the staff of the ICAO Library in this regard. I!':lble of Contents Page IV Table of Contents Abstract Résumé ii Acknowledgment iil Table of Contents iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The incident (Facts) 1.1) Background 4 1 2) The Challenges made to IR655 7 1 3) Fnend or Foe 8 Chapter 2: Background of the Incident 2.1) Vislt and Search of Vessels by Belligerents 13 2.2) Were the United States' Operations Peace-Keeping? 17 2.3) The United States as a Neutral States 18 2.4) Position of the USS Vincennes and the Question of Soverelgnty 20 2.5) Freedom of the High Seas 21 2.6) Mllitary use of the territorial sea by foreign vesse~ 21 Chapter 3: The Chicago Convention and ICAO Position 3.1) International Civil Aviation Organization 24 3.2) Accident Investigation 26 3.3) ICAO Council can consider any matter 31 Table of Contents Page v 3.4) The Extraordinary Session of the Council 3.4.1) Convocation and Opinions Expressed on the IR655 Incident 32 3.4.2) Decision of the ICAO Council ln ItS Extraordlnary Session 34 3.4.3) Discussion of the Draft Resolution 36 3.5) Civil/military Co-ordination 3.5.1) Annex 11 38 3.5.2) Civil/Military Co-ordination in the Gu~Aœa 40 3.5.3) Routing Arrangements and Civil/Mihtary Co-ordination in the Persian Gulf Area 42 3.6) 125th Session of the ICAO Councii 44 3.7) 120th Session of the Air Navigation Commission 50 3.8) 126th Session of the ICAO Councii 54 3.9) Sorne Legal Aspects of The ICAO Councll DecIsions 57 Chapter 4: Re/e"ialiCf! of the NOTAMs in the USS Vincennes' Case 4.1) NOTAM issued by the FAA 61 4.2) Pre-Conditions and Recommended Practices Concerning NOTAM 4.2.1) Annex 15 62 4.2.2) The Third Middle East Regional Air Navigation Recommendation 65 4.2.3) Meeting in the European Office of ICAO 66 4.3) Violation of Standard and Recommended Practices 67 Tabl~~fCo=n~t=e~nt~s ____________________. ________________ ~Pa~g~e~~vl Chapter 5: Self-Defense 5 1) Use of Force as Self-Defence in International Law 72 5.2) The Temparai Elements in Self -Defence 75 5.3) A Prlor Aenal Incident 76 5.4) "Reasonableness" ln self-Defense 78 5.5) A vahd clalm ln the Incident 80 5 6) A Third Party is Entltled to Evaluate the Self-Defence 88 5.7) Mlstaken Self-Defence 89 Chapter 6: State Responsibility 6 1) The Concept of Responsiblhty 91 6.2) The Proper Role of Fault (cu/pa) and Intention ~~ ~ 6.3) Responslbility of the State for Acts of Armed Forces 98 Chapter 7: Iranian and U.S. Governments Position 7.1) Iranlan Government Position and the Case Pending Before the ICJ 101 7.2) U.S. Government Position 103 Conclusion 108 Se/ected Bibliography 112 Ust of Abbreviation 120 Table of Cases 123 Table of Contents ______________ Pa.g~ __ VII Appendices Appendlx A: Map A-1 Appendix 8' Fatal Accident Rates for Passengers on World Scheduled Services 1972-1991 8-1 Appendix C' Air Navigation Commission -Safety Measures relatlng to actlvltles Potentiallv Hazardous to CIvil AH craft C-1 -Review of Safety Recommendatlons Contalned in the ICAO Investigation Report C-13 Appendlx D: Iranlan ICJ Application 0-1 Legal Aspects of the IR655 Tragedy Page 1 ln the name of God Introduction There are severallegal problems with which the internationallaw of the air has to deal today. Recently, with the &dvancement of technology, civil aviation, which represents a necessary means of communication between nations and provides an essentiallink for the economic life of society, is no longer felt to have a high degree of danger or risk. However, with congested traffic in the aviation field ail over the world, threat to air travel, (by man-made dangers such as the use of force and other forms of unlawful interference with civil aviation) has increased. ICAO has been the main instrument in the development of aviation safety programmes and of the implementation of new technology to reduce the number of accidents. ICAO seeks to prevent aets of unlawful interference with civil aviation on an internationallevel. As its primary responsibility and main objective, ICAO has taken ail necessary measures to develop safety in civil aviation by adopting international Standards and Recommended Practices embodied in the Annexes related to the matter. Effective and reliable safety measures have been proposed, in addition to those already contained in ICAO Annexes, to improve the civil f1ight operations internationally. The Chicago Convention nowhere addresses the use of force against a civil airplane, and sovereignty of any Stat() over its airspace (mentioned in Article 1 of the Chicago Convention) does not grant the right of the use of force against an Legal Aspects of the IR655 Tragedy Page 2 • intercepted aircraft. The Contractlng States of ICAO agreed to "have due regard for the safety of navigation of civil alrcraft"l wh en they Issue Instructions to thelr military aircraft. Annex 2 of the Convention states that "Interception of civil alrcraft should be avoided,,2 As a ru le, the state concerned has ta attempt to make contact with the intercepted aircraft. The ground station or the Interceptlng alrcraft then has to request the foreign airplane either to change Its course or to land ln Article 3 bis of the ConventIon which was adopted ln May 1984 as a declaratory statement of general internationallaw states in much stronger language that "the ContractinQ States recognize that every State must refrain trom resortlng to the use of weapons against civil aircraft ln flight and that, in case of Interception, the lives of persans on board and the safety of aircraft must not be endangered."3 On July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes, a United States warshlp, shot down an Iran Air Airbus A300 (IR655) on a scheduled flight. The tlrst and second chapters of this study will discuss the tacts of the incident and its hlstoncal background. As weil, the law of neutrality will be discussed in the second chapter. The ICAO Council, in several meetings, considered the matter. Based on the Council's decision made in July and December 1988, the ICAO Air Navigation 1Conventlon Between the States Respectlng InternatIOnal CIVil AViation, Dec.7, 1944,61 Stat. 11 BO, T.I.A.S. nO.1591, 15 U.N.T S 295 (herelnafter Chicago Convention) at Art. 3(d) Both Iran and U.S.