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15.10 NEUTRAL AIRSPACEIn general, belligerent military aircraft may not enter neutral airspace except to addressviolations of neutrality by enemy forces when the neutral State is unwilling or unable to addresssuch violations.15.10.1 Airspace That Is Considered Neutral. The airspace over a neutral State’s landterritory and the neutral State’s territorial and archipelagic waters is subject to the sovereignty ofthe neutral State and, thus, is considered neutral. 200The airspace over international waters, including the airspace over a neutral State’scontiguous zone and exclusive economic zone, is not considered neutral airspace. 20115.10.2 Prohibition on Entry by Belligerent Military Aircraft Into Neutral Airspace.Belligerent military aircraft are forbidden to enter neutral airspace, subject to certainexceptions. 202Belligerent military aircraft have the right to pass through international straits overlappedby neutral waters and archipelagic sea lanes of a neutral State. 203Belligerent States’ medical aircraft may enter neutral airspace subject to certainconditions. 204Belligerent aircraft in evident distress may be permitted to enter neutral airspace and toland in neutral territory under such safeguards as the neutral State may wish to impose. Theneutral State must require such aircraft to land and must intern both aircraft and crew. 205 This200 Refer to § 14.2.1.1 (National Airspace).201 Refer to § 14.2.1.2 (International Airspace).202 Consultative Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the American Republics, Final Act of the Meeting: V GeneralDeclaration of Neutrality of the American Republics, 3, Oct. 3, 1939, 1 DEPARTMENT OF STATE BULLETIN 326, 327(Oct. 7, 1939) (The American Republics resolve “[t]o declare that with regard to their status as neutrals, there existcertain standards recognized by the American Republics applicable in these circumstances and that in accordancewith them they: ... (f) Shall regard as a contravention of their neutrality any flight by the military aircraft of abelligerent state over their own territory.”).203 Refer to § 15.8 (Passage of Belligerent Vessels and Aircraft Through International Straits and Archipelagic SeaLanes).204 Refer to § 15.18.2 (Medical Aircraft and Neutral Territory).205 2007 NWP 1-14M 7.3.9 (“Belligerent aircraft in evident distress may be permitted to enter neutral airspace andto land in neutral territory under such safeguards as the neutral nation may wish to impose. The neutral nation mustrequire such aircraft to land and must intern both aircraft and crew.”). See also SPAIGHT, AIR POWER AND WARRIGHTS 436 (“The case of distress.—It was agreed by the Commission of Jurists of 1922-23 that the obligation toprevent the entry of belligerent military aircraft was to be regarded as being subject to the neutral State’s moral dutyto grant succor to airmen in distress. As already explained, there is, in practice, some difficulty in differentiatingbetween cases in which the reason for entry is genuine distress, or some similar cause such as engine failure orexhaustion of fuel which might lead to disaster, and those in which there is a deliberate attempt to penetrate in orderto secure some military advantage or to escape from superior forces. The highest that one can put the neutralobligation is that asylum should be granted in all cases of evident distress, so far as the circumstances allow thisobvious concession to humanitarian claims to be made.”).964