5/19/2011 13:50

Dzung Trieu Law Firm_The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam has fined a French passenger VND15 million (US$724.98) for making a bomb hoax threat when a plane was boarding at Ho Chi Minh City’s airport last Saturday.

However, Vietnam Airlines, whose flight was delayed nearly three hours following the joke by 27-year-old Mariano Francois Xavier Jean Agostini, said the punishment was too light, VnExpress reported.

The national carrier said it has lost hundreds of millions of dong in the incident.

According to the Tan Son Nhat airport’s authority, when passengers were going onboard for a flight to the central city of Da Nang, Agostini told a Vietnamese female passenger in his group that he had bomb in his hand luggage. 

Another French female passenger overheard their conversation and reported to the crew members.

The flight was delayed and security officers started to search the plane and re-scanned the luggage of 180 passengers. 

Agostini, who was then rejected from boarding, later told the airport authority he was just joking about the bomb.

Last month, a Vietnamese passenger was sentenced to 10 months probation and fined VND240 million (US$11,600) for making a bomb hoax threat also on a Vietnam Airlines plane.

(thanhniennews)