Re: \"Terrorists\" try to hijack helicopter...
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Maybe I missed something in the story. What did they do that was illegal again?
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Here goes...
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Federal Aviation Regulations
§ 135.119 Prohibition against carriage of weapons
No person may, while on board an aircraft being operated by a certificate holder, carry on or about that person a deadly or dangerous weapon, either concealed or unconcealed. This section does not apply to—
(a) Officials or employees of a municipality or a State, or of the United States, who are authorized to carry arms; or
(b) Crewmembers and other persons authorized by the certificate holder to carry arms.
The TSA does not allow passengers to carry box cutters on 121 aircraft. I would deduce that they are prohibited because they are considered a weapon, or could be used as a weapon.
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Continuting on...
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The USC Title 18 Section 1036:
Entry by false pretenses to any real property, vessel, or aircraft of the United States or secure area of any airport
(a) Whoever, by any fraud or false pretense, enters or attempts to enter -
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(3) any secure area of any airport,
shall be punished as provided in subsection (b) of this section.
(b) The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) of this section is -
(1) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or both, if the offense is committed with the intent to commit a felony; or
(2) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both, in any other case.
(c) As used in this section -
(1) the term ''secure area'' means an area access to which is restricted by the airport authority or a public agency; and
(2) the term ''airport'' has the meaning given such term in section 47102 of title 49
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and finally...
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USC Title 18
Sec. 371. - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States
If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor
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There are actually a host of other crimes under Terrorism in the USC that these guys could have been charged with, but this post is long enough.
So let's see. Their plan was this: Go to an airport, charter an aircraft, smuggle weapons on board, for the reason of a television news story, however they would not inform the people at the airport of what they were trying to do, but rather simply appear to be wanting a sight seeing flight, etc.
So right off the bat they violated Title 18, Section 371 of the USC by conspiring to violate Title 18 Section 1036 of the USC, by gaining access to a secure area of an airport (i.e. the ramp) under false pretenses. They did in fact gain access so not only did they conspire to violate Title 18, sec 1036 they did indeed violate it.
They had, in their bags, concealed box cutters. These items are prohibited to carry on airliners by the TSA because they are considered weapons. I would suspect that in court they would be defined as weapons. So had they gotten on the aircraft they would have violated § 135.119 of the FAR, but again since that was their intent they committed conspiracy under Title 18 Section 371.
This type of BS cannot be tolerated. It is difficult enough to stop real criminals without having media n'er do wells trying to circumvent security procedures.
I personally would have thrown the book at these guys. Their intent was not to inform the public, but rather to get viewers and I would argue to possibly induce panic. Of course they would have argued that they had the "public's best interests at heart", but I sincerely doubt that.
Naunga
