A Chinese passenger was caught rummaging through the handbag of his compatriot aboard a Vietnam Airlines (VNA) plane in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, the latest in a series of such in-flight thefts, or attempted thieving, involving Chinese nationals.

>> Chinese man deported for stealing on flight>> Chinese nationals caught pick-pocketing on flight >> Chinese man caught on tape attempting to steal on flight The incident occurred on the evening of March 18 when flight VN594 was about to leave the city’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport for Hong Kong. At that time, the Chinese passenger, Dong Jiayi, 35, with a handbag in hand, came over to the overhead locker at seat number 17C, where Wai Lin Richard, from Hong Kong was sitting, despite Dong’s seat number being 20C. Dong then put a handbag in the locker above Wai’s seat and opened another handbag, which was also placed in the same locker and owned by Wai. While Dong was searching through the handbag, Wai caught Dong in the act and called flight attendants for help, with the witness of two other passengers. The flight crew made a report about this case and Wai confirmed that nothing was lost from his handbag. However, Wai said he wanted to coordinate with Vietnamese authorities to handle the attempted stealing.  The crew then took both Wai and Dong out of the plane and handed them over to the airport police. After the handover, the plane took off and Vietnam Airlines, the country’s national flagship carrier, arranged another flight to Hong Kong for Wai later the same day. This is the fourth time that Chinese passengers have been caught stealing or attempting to steal on VNA flights this year. The most recent case occurred on March 1 when Gui Guoliang, 41, committed theft while on board VNA flight VN654 from Changi, Singapore, to Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

Gui stood up from seat 17C and opened a wallet in a handbag placed in the overhead locker. His act was detected by the handbag’s owner, Patrick Trinh, seated in number 25D. Trinh shouted for help and flight attendants came to handle the incident. Upon examination, Trinh said the money inside the wallet had been taken out but was still in the handbag. Investigation showed that Gui had snatched the money out of the wallet but left it inside the bag when Trinh caught him. For his offense, Gui was later deported from Vietnam.