Young man held for explosive threat at airport
Friday, November 15, 2013, 13:37 GMT+7
Police in Gia Lai Province have detained 24-year-old Hoang Khac Thang, who threatened security staff at the Pleiku Airport by telling them he was holding “a bag of explosives.”
>> Woman who joked about bomb on plane gets probation Thang, a native of Thanh Hoa Province, was arrested on Thursday when he was waiting for a flight from Pleiku City in the Central Highlands province to Hanoi on Thursday, November 14. Thang and his six friends arrived at the airport at 6:30 pm that day to claim a ticket he had booked earlier at an airline firm. When an employee of the firm told Thang that his flight would depart two hours later, he became furious with the staff. He beat his hand hard on the employee’s desk, and pushed a computer down to the floor. When airport security arrived to handle the incident, Thang threatened that he had “a bag of explosives.” Thang’s threat prompted two security officers to respond immediately by grasping him tightly and then handing him over to police.
Thang’s alarming actions will have to be punished strictly, said Nguyen Trong Hai, director of the airport.
Several similar cases have happened in the past.
In July 2012, the Hanoi People’s Court sentenced a young woman, 25-year-old Ho Thi Thanh Tuyen, to 15 months of probation for joking that there might be a bomb in her luggage while she was onboard a plane of Vietnam Airlines (VNA).
In July 2011, a former employee of Vietnam Airlines was also sentenced to 15 months in prison for a similar bomb hoax in 2010 that disrupted a flight to Cambodia.
Nguyen Bang Viet, 36 on November 9, 2010, texted a chief stewardess a message that there was a bomb aboard a Vietnam Airlines aircraft that was about to leave Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport for Siem Reap.
The flight was canceled and security forces searched the airport but found no bomb.
In August 2011, Hai Phong City authorities fined Nguyen Van Tuan, 38 of Quang Ninh province, VND10 million (US$500) for claiming he had a bomb while waiting for a flight at Cat Bi Airport in the northern city.
Tuan was immediately detained and all passengers evacuated and inspected but no bomb was found. As a result, the flight was delayed for 50 minutes.
