1. — (1) In this Act—

“ Act of 1965 ” means the Extradition Act, 1965;

“ aircraft ” includes any aircraft other than state aircraft;

“ commander ”, in relation to an aircraft, means the member of the crew who is designated as commander by the operator or, if there is no such designation, the pilot in command of the aircraft;

“ the Montreal Convention ” means the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, done at Montreal on the 23rd day of September, 1971, the text of which is set out in the Schedule to this Act;

“ state aircraft ” means aircraft of any state used in the military, customs or police services of that state.

(2) For the purposes of this Act—

(a) the period during which an aircraft is in flight shall be deemed to include—

(i) any period from the moment when all external doors of the aircraft are closed following embarkation for a flight until the moment when any external door is opened for disembarkation after that flight, and

(ii) if the aircraft makes a forced landing, any period thereafter until the time when the competent authorities of the state in which the forced landing takes place assume responsibility for the aircraft and for the persons and property on board the aircraft (being, in the case of a forced landing which takes place in the State, the time when a member of the Garda Síochána arrives at the place of landing);

(b) the period during which an aircraft is in service shall be deemed to include any period from the beginning of the pre-flight preparations of the aircraft by ground personnel or the crew for a particular flight until 24 hours after the aircraft has landed after that flight, such period in every case to include the period during which the aircraft is in flight; and any reference in this Act to an aircraft in flight or an aircraft in service shall include a reference to an aircraft during the period when it is on the surface of sea or land but not within the territorial limits of any state.