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Civil Aviation Act 2023

Aviation security - Aviation security services and aviation security powers - Searching powers at aerodromes and navigation installations

143: Consent requirements for searching

You could also call this:

"When can airport staff search you or your bags at an airport?"

Illustration for Civil Aviation Act 2023

When you are at an aerodrome, the people in charge can search you or your things, but they usually need your consent. You can give consent to be searched, which means you agree to it. If you are searched, it might be because you are carrying something or you are a person who needs to be checked.

If you are at a screening point, you are taken to have agreed to be searched without being touched, and to have your baggage searched, even if it needs to be opened with force. However, you can still say no to being searched before it happens.

You can change your mind about being searched at any time, but if you do, it is like you said no to the search in the first place. You are also taken to have agreed to your baggage being searched if it is being looked after by an airline or a government agency for a reason like transporting it or checking it. This is all part of the rules in the Civil Aviation Act 2023, which includes section 141, subpart 3, and is subject to section 144.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS239592.

Topics:
Transport and travel > Air travel
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142: Requirements and incidental powers relating to manner of searching persons, or

"What to do when an aviation security officer searches you at an airport"

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144: Circumstances where consent to searching not required, or

"When airport staff can search you or your things without asking"

Part 5Aviation security
Aviation security services and aviation security powers: Searching powers at aerodromes and navigation installations

143Consent requirements for searching

  1. The power of search in section 141 may be exercised only,—

  2. in the case of the search of a person, with the consent of the person:
    1. in the case of the search of a thing, with the consent of the person in possession of the thing.

      1. If a person is at a screening point, the person is taken for all purposes to consent to—

      2. any searching of the person that involves no physical contact with the person being searched:
        1. any searching of baggage presented by the person for carriage, including the use of reasonable force to open the baggage.

          1. Subsection (2) does not apply to a search described in that subsection if the person refuses before the search begins to undergo the search or to allow a search of an item in the person’s possession.

          2. A person (including a person to whom subsection (2) applies) may withdraw their consent at any time before a search is finished but, if the person does so, the person is treated for the purposes of this subpart and subpart 3 as if they had refused consent to the search.

          3. A person is taken for all purposes to consent to the searching of the person’s baggage while it is temporarily under the control, or in the charge, of—

          4. an airline operator or other person at an aerodrome for the purpose of transporting it within the aerodrome or loading it or any other similar purpose; or
            1. a government agency for the purpose of inspecting it or exercising any other regulatory function.

              1. This section is subject to section 144.