44. Wreck and salvage

Any services rendered in assisting, or in saving life from, or in saving the cargo or apparel of, an aircraft in, on or over the sea or any tidal water, or on or over the shores of the sea or any tidal water, are deemed to be salvage services in all cases in which they would have been salvage services if they had been rendered in relation to a vessel; and where salvage services are rendered by an aircraft to any property or person, the owner of the aircraft is entitled to the same reward for those services as the owner would have been entitled to if the aircraft had been a vessel.

Subsection (1) has effect even though the aircraft concerned is a foreign aircraft, and even though the services in question are rendered elsewhere than within the limits of the territorial waters adjacent to any part of Singapore.

The Minister may, by regulations, direct that any provisions of any written law for the time being in force which relate to wreck, to salvage of life or property or to the duty of rendering assistance to vessels in distress are, with any exceptions, adaptations and modifications that may be specified in the regulations, to apply in relation to aircraft as those provisions apply in relation to vessels.

For the purposes of this section, any provisions of any written law which relate to vessels laid by or neglected as unfit for sea service are deemed to be provisions relating to wreck.[11