The four British passengers started attacking each other shortly after their vacation flight took off from Morocco and were soon locked in a vicious brawl that sent waves of panic through the aircraft.

But when the Royal Air Maroc jet eventually landed in Manchester the combatants were allowed to walk free."The fight was very distressing for everyone on board, but we had to let the four go. The airline couldn't believe it, nor could the passengers," said Kevin Hart, a senior police officer at Manchester airport.

A loophole in British law means authorities cannot prosecute those who commit offenses on board foreign-registered aircraft, short of kidnapping or murder.

Hart, who is also chairman of the Association of UK Airport Police Commanders, is worried about officers' inability to act at a time when airlines around the world are reporting a growing number of violent in-flight incidents.

Major foreign airlines operating in Britain are so fed up at seeing troublemakers walk free that they have banded together to try to push a bill closing the loophole through Parliament.

Peter North, chief executive for the Board of Airline Representatives UK (BARUK), says something must be done before a violent passenger causes a plane to crash.

"In one sense we've been lucky. No one has opened an emergency exit at 30,000 feet and downed an aircraft," he said.

"Even if these cases represent a fraction of one percent of all flights, if traffic is growing at 6 percent a year, these things are going to grow."

Airlines have traditionally been unwilling to publicize violent incidents for fear of deterring potential passengers, but unofficial evidence suggests the number of cases is climbing.

Qantas security manager Reginald Brothers, one of the prime movers behind the private bill, said he was spurred into action after a British man assaulted one of the airline's stewards on a flight in 1993, breaking a cheekbone and several teeth.

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The airline pursued the case for two years through the civil courts before giving up.

"The cases will continue and we should be in a position to pursue complaints in a criminal court even if we only get one a year," Brothers said.

The foreign airlines say Britain should have taken advantage of a 1967 convention signed in Tokyo by most of the world's major nations that paved the way for signatories to introduce tough laws to clamp down on extra-territorial offenses.

A Home Office (interior minister) spokesman said airlines' representations were being considered as part of an internal review on the question of jurisdiction. An initial report is expected in the next few months.

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