Civil Aviation Act 1949

55 Recording and registration of births and deaths, etc.

(1) The Minister may by regulations provide for requireing such persons as may be specified in the regulations to keep records and make returns to him—

(a) of births and deaths occurring in any part of the world in any aircraft registered in Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and

(b) of the death, outside the United Kingdom, of any person who, being a traveller on such an aircraft, is killed on the journey in consequence of an accident;

and for the keeping in his Department of a record of any returns made to him in accordance with any such requirement as aforesaid.

Any person who fails to comply with any such requirement shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

(2) Proceedings for an offence under this section shall not, in England or Wales, be instituted except by or with the consent of the Minister or by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and shall not, in Northern Ireland be instituted except by or with the consent of the Minister, or by the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland.

(3) Where such an offence as aforesaid has been committed by a body corporate, every person who at the time of the commission of the offence was a director, general manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or was purporting to act in any such capacity, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence, unless he proves that the offence was committed without his consent or connivance and that he exercised all such diligence to prevent the commission of the offence as he ought to have exercised having regard to the nature of his functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances.

In this subsection the expression " director" includes any person occupying the position of director, by whatever name called.

(4) Where any such regulations provide for the keeping of records in the Department of the Minister in accordance with subsection (1) of this section they shall also provide for the transmission of certified copies of those records to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England, the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland, or the Registrar General for Northern Ireland, as the case may require.

(5) The Registrar General to whom any such certified copies are sent shall cause them to be filed and preserved in a book to be kept by him for the purpose, and to be called the Air Register Book of Births and Deaths.

(6) Regulations made under subsection (1) of this section shall provide for the rectification of any records kept in the Department of the Minister in pursuance of the regulations and for the transmission of certified copies of any corrected entry in the records to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England, the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland, or the Registrar General for Northern Ireland, as the case may require.

(7) The Registrar General to whom a certified copy of any such corrected entry is sent in accordance with the regulations shall cause the corrected entry to be substituted for the corresponding entry for the time being made in the Air Register Book of Births and Deaths.

(8) The enactments relating to the registration of births and deaths in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland shall have effect as if the Air Register Book of Births and Deaths were a certified copy or duplicate register transmitted to the Registrar General in accordance with those enactments.

(9) The Minister may by regulations provide—

(a) for the keeping in his Department of a record of persons reported to him as missing, being persons with respect to whom there are reasonable grounds for believing that they have died in consequence of an accident to an aircraft registered in Great Britain and Northern Ireland ;

(b) for the rectification of any such record; and

(c) for the transmission of information as to the matters for the time being entered on the record to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England, the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland or the Registrar General for Northern Ireland, as the case may require.