(1)The pay of an officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or airman of the regular air force may be forfeited:—
(a)for any day of absence in such circumstances as to constitute an offence under section thirty-seven or thirty-eight of this Act or, if the Air Council or an officer authorised by them so direct, of other absence without leave;
(b)for any day of imprisonment, detention or field punishment awarded under this Act, the Naval Discipline Act or the Army Act, 1955, by a court-martial or commanding officer, or of imprisonment, corrective training, preventive detention, detention in a Borstal institution or detention of any other description to-which he is liable in consequence of an order or sentence of a civil court or an order of recall made by the Prison Commissioners, the Secretary of State or the Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland;
(c)where he is found guilty (whether by court-martial, the appropriate superior authority or his commanding officer) of an offence under this Act, the Naval Discipline Act or the Army Act, 1955, for any day (whether before or after he is found guilty) on which he is in hospital on account of sickness or injury certified by the proper medical officer to have been occasioned by the offence.
(2)The pay of an officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or airman of the regular air force may be forfeited for any day of absence by reason of his having been made a prisoner of war if the Air Council or an officer authorised by them are satisfied—
(a)that he was made a prisoner of war through disobedience to orders or wilful neglect of his duty ; or
(b)that having been made a prisoner of war he failed to take any reasonable steps available to him to rejoin Her Majesty's service; or
(c)that having been made a prisoner of war he served with or aided the enemy in the prosecution of hostilities or measures calculated to influence morale or in any other manner whatsoever not authorised by international usage,
and nothing in paragraph (a) of the last foregoing subsection shall apply to absence by reason of having been made a prisoner of war.
(3)Regulations or orders of the Air Council may make provision as to the computation of time for the purposes of this section and in particular as to the counting or disregarding of parts of days.