Nguyen Thanh Chuong would never imagine his search for the plane restroom could leave 51 other passengers unable to board their flight, and himself facing a possibly hefty fine.

Shortly after taking his seat on the VietJet Air flight VJ175 bound for Ho Chi Minh City in Hanoi on Friday, the 43-year-old found himself in need of the restroom.

Chuong, hailing from Duong Lam, an ancient village dating back to the 17^th century in the outskirts of Hanoi, opened the emergency exit next to him, believing it would lead to where he could answer the call of nature.

His sudden move left the cabin crew of the Airbus A321 carrying 202 passengers in shock, and activated the plane's emergency slide .

The flight, which had been scheduled to leave Hanoi at 4:30pm, had to be delayed for three hours for the evacuation slide to be repacked.

Unfortunately, 51 passengers had to miss the flight as VietJet Air had to cut the number of passengers as per safety regulation.

An A321 jet can carry 220 passengers at most, and when it lacks one of the evacuation slides, the maximum number of passengers allowed is 151. With the flight VJ175 having only 202 passengers, the number of those to be cut was 51, according to VietJet Air.

VietJet Air said many passengers were displeased that they had to wait for the following flight, and the budget carrier had to compensate them VND300,000 (US$13.98) each, or refund those who did not want to wait.

The carrier said the incident resulted in great damage as it had to repack the evacuation slide and adjust the schedule of remaining flights of that day.

Chuong told the Northern Airport Authority that he only wanted to spend a penny and mistook the emergency exit for the restroom door.

The airport authority said it is considering the penalty for Chuong, who now faces a fine ranging from VND10 million to VND20 million ($466-$932) according to civil aviation law.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!