Non-use of Force in Aviation Law (Case Study: Iran Air Flight 655 Incident)

The importance of the aviation industry can be a pretext for abusing governments through the use of force against their national aircraft. The principle of non-use of force has been considered in aviation law in domestic and international references. Examples include the Penal Code for Disruption of Aircraft Flight Safety and Article (3) of the Chicago Convention. The use of force or the use of weapons against civilian aircraft is criminalized and prohibited in these references. In 1988, Iran Air 655 passenger flight was hit by two missiles fired from an American guided missile cruiser. In the aftermath of this incident, the American legal position was legitimate defense as an inherent right. According to the references, the US attack on the passenger plane in the declared airspace in Iran was a violation of the legal rule of non-use of force. Furthermore, according to Article 51 of the UN Charter, due to the absence of an armed attack by the Iranian aircraft, the US government's claim of legitimate defense is deemed as an escape from international responsibility and lacks any legal or international legitimacy. Thus, the study of the principle of non-use of force in aviation law and its violating factors in domestic and international references is of great importance, because repeated disruptive acts - in the form of the use of force - against aviation security will cause enormous damage to the Civil Aviation Authority, its passengers, goods and cargoes, and this could be a clear violation of international aviation law and the basic rules of civil aviation security. In this paper, data are collected through the library method and analyzed using a case study.