‘Air Police’ to be on Duty on Planes

* Photograph: AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

According to a regulation published by the Ministry of Interior on the Official Gazette, armed undercover police officers wil now be on duty on planes.

Specially trained armed law enforcement officers will be on board with the aim of ensuring the security of civil aircraft, passengers and the crew.

The duties, authorities and responsibilities of the air police will be under the jurisdiction of Department of Security of Directorate General of Security and the directorates of security in cities with international airports.

Their identity will be kept confidential from passengers

Police officers will sit on passenger seats like regular passengers. While their identity will be known by the crew, the identity of air police will be kept confidential from the passengers on board.

The air police will be considered on duty all through the flight where they are stationed. Police officers on duty in any flight will act in concert with the crew if the flight in question is delayed.

The flight duty and periods of rest of air police officers will be determined by the Directorate General of Security. When the air police are not on duty on an international flight, they will follow the works and operations at the bureaus which they are affiliated with.

Duties

As for the duties of air police, in the event that one or more persons prevent the operation of an in-flight airplane by using violence or threatening to use it, they attempt to overtake the control of the plane or manage to do so, they will be authorized to return the control of the plane to the pilot in command with the aim of ensuring flight security and to take proportional protective security measures to ensure life safety of the control cabin, the crew and passengers and to prevent illegal acts of intervention.

End-of-duty report

The air police will be on duty in plain clothes and will protect the control cabin in the event of the above-mentioned threats. They will not intervene against the passengers not observing the rules or the ones posing a potential threat as long as the above conditions do not arise.

When the flight ends, air police officers will prepare an end-of-duty report. The reports prepared by the officers will be submitted to the officer in charge and will be archived. (TP/SD)