Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) A person who hijacks an aircraft commits an indictable offence if any of the following applies when the hijacking is committed:
(a) the aircraft is in flight, within the meaning of the Hague Convention, and the Hague Convention requires Australia to make the hijacking punishable;
(b) the aircraft is engaged in a prescribed flight;
(c) the aircraft is a Commonwealth aircraft;
(d) the aircraft is a visiting government aircraft.
(2) A person who hijacks an aircraft commits an indictable offence if:
(a) the hijacking is committed outside Australia ; and
(b) the person who commits the hijacking is an Australian citizen; and
(c) the aircraft would, if the Hague Convention applied, be considered to be in flight.
(2A) Absolute liability applies to paragraphs ( 1)(a), (b), (c) and (d) and paragraphs ( 2)(a), (b) and (c).
Note: For absolute liability , see section 6.2 of the Criminal Code .
(3) An offence against subsection ( 1) or (2) is punishable on conviction by imprisonment for life.
(4) A person cannot be tried for an offence against subsection ( 1) merely because paragraph ( 1)(a) applies, unless Article 4 of the Hague Convention requires Australia to establish its jurisdiction over the offence.