A Hanoi man has been given a six-month flight ban after he joked that there was a bomb in his luggage while he was about to board a plane in central Vietnam earlier this month.
>> Woman who joked about bomb on plane gets probation >> Bomb joke: Administrative or criminal case?
The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has banned Nghiem Tho Hoan, 41, from flying and directed all aviation firms nationwide to deny services to him from March 20 to June 21.
Along with the flight ban, Hoan will be given a pecuniary fine ranging between VND10-30 million (up to US$1,415).
The man will have to undergo a compulsory visual check before he is allowed to get aboard a plane during the six months following the expiry of the ban, the CAAV said.
The prohibition was issued 10 days after Hoang jokingly told a security officer at Buon Ma Thuot Airport in the Central Highlands city of Buon Ma Thuot that his luggage contained a bomb on March 10.
He was being given a security check before boarding a Vietjet Air plane to fly to Hanoi then.
The security officer reported Hoan’s statement to the airport authority, which delayed the flight and conducted an examination of the passenger’s luggage.
No bomb was found inside so the security made a report on the incident and handed over the man to competent agencies later.
Similar bomb hoaxes
In February 2012, a passenger named C. told security staff at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi that he possessed a bomb.
“Check carefully. I attached an explosive to my body,” the man said while checking in at the airport.
He was searched immediately by security staff who found no explosives in his body.
C. later admitted that he made a joke and did not think that it was treated as a threat to aviation security.
The person was fined VND10 million ($472) and handed a six-month flight ban.
Another case, which was more serious, happened in July 2012, when a female passenger was brought to court after she claimed to have a bomb in her bag at the same airport.
Ho Thi Thanh Tuyen, a 27-year-old woman from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, was given a suspended sentence of 15 months and fined VND100 million ($4,717) for “obstruction of air traffic.”
In July 2011, Nguyen Bang Viet, a former employee of national carrier Vietnam Airlines, got the same sentence for a similar bomb hoax in 2010 that disrupted a flight from Hanoi to Cambodia.
Viet, 39, texted a chief stewardess a message that a bomb had been planted on board a Vietnam Airlines aircraft, about to leave Noi Bai International Airport for Siem Reap, on November 9, 2010.
The flight was canceled and security forces searched the airport, but they found no explosive devices.
With a view to further discouraging people from raising false bomb alarms, the CAAV is planning to increase their fines to VND20-40 million ($1,900).
Vietnam man gets 6-month flight ban for bomb joke Related image(s)
0 comments:
Post a Comment