Hanoi - A VietJet Air flight with nearly 200 passengers onboard landed in a wrong airport some 140 kilometers away from their destination on Thursday (10 July 2014).
The hour-long flight was supposed to take the passengers from Hanoi to the Central Highlands resort town of Da Lat, but it somehow ended up in Cam Ranh Airport near the central beach town of Nha Trang.
It is not clear when VietJet Air realized it had made the mistake, but when the passengers arrived at Cam Ranh, the low-cost carrier arranged another flight to take them to the right destination.
It also sent another airplane to pick more than 200 passengers who had been waiting at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport to board a Hanoi-Nha Trang flight.
Dinh Viet Son, director of the Northern Airports Authority, said on Friday that they have summoned related parties to investigate the causes of the “rarest” incident that has ever happened in Vietnam’s aviation history.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has also ordered VietJet Air to submit all its schedules and plans for the flight in question to detect mistakes, if any.
“It is a serious mistake. Responsible people will definitely be punished strictly,” he said.
A spokesman of VietJet Air today told the press that the flight’s pilot had had to change course because he deemed Da Lat’s wind conditions at the time not suitable for landing at Lien Khuong airport. He therefore had asked for permission to land at Cam Ranh to wait for the weather to get better, the spokesman said.
Last month 59 passengers of VietJet Air were almost sent to a flight bound for Hanoi from Nha Trang, instead of their destination Ho Chi Minh City.
The mistake was discovered when the passengers were in a jet bridge to board the wrong aircraft.
Cam Ranh airport’s authority at the time blamed the incident on poor communication between ground service staff and the airline’s staff.
Last year, VietJet Air transported more than 100 passengers from Nha Trang to Hanoi without carrying their luggage. The passengers could not retrieve their belongings, which were left at Cam Ranh airport by mistake, until the next day. - Trung Hieu, Thanh Nieh News. Edited by Gan Yung Chyan / KUCINTA SETIA
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