Two air traffic controllers at the Ho Chi Minh City Air Control Center at the city’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport have been fined US$351 each for failing to comply with air control processes leading to a case that threatened flight safety.

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>> Pilot presses wrong button, prompting hijacking scare at Vietnam airport The chief inspector of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has issued decisions to fine Pham Ngoc Lam, 46, and Nguyen Hoang Tin, 30, VND7.5 million ($351) each for failing to comply with the air traffic control process and thereby threatening flight safety for two planes. The incident occurred on December 19, 2014, when the minimum safe distance between a Vietnam Airlines plane, HVN 231 and a Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Cargo aircraft, CPA 705, was violated when they were flying in the Ho Chi Minh City flight information region. After an investigation, the CAAV’s Inspectorate concluded that the dangerous case was caused by improper air traffic operations by the two above controllers. The said fines were issued based on a Governmental Decree on administrative penalties in the field of civil aviation, the Inspectorate said.        In related news, the CAAV said on Thursday that it had fined a Czech pilot for the Vietnam Airlines VND3 million ($140) for mistakenly issuing hijack warning signals (7500), instead of  the emergency code (7700), during an emergency situation caused by technical problems on December 16, 2014. The pilot, 45-year-old Pechanec Marek, sent the wrong signal two times when a sudden drop in cabin pressure prompted him and his co-pilots to lower their plane from 35,000 feet to 13,000 feet, and to make an emergency landing, the CAAV said. The incident occurred when the plane was flying from Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh Airport in the central province of Nghe An, carrying 135 passengers and seven crew members.

As a result, anti-terrorism measures to cope with a hijacking scenario were deployed at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, where the plane safely landed at 7:15 pm the same day.

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