Three employees have been fined for letting a foreign passenger board the wrong flight at a major airport in Ho Chi Minh City this month.

The chief steward of flight VN651, operated by national carrier Vietnam Airlines, and two staff members of the Vietnam Airport Ground Services Company (VIAGS) have been fined VND4 million (US$176) each for their error, the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed on Tuesday.

Flight VN651 was scheduled to leave Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City for Singapore at 9:10 am on February 20.

The VIAGS was in charge of performing passenger checks at the departure gates of Vietnam Airlines’ flights.

Due to their carelessness, a foreign passenger, who was supposed to travel to Yangon, Myanmar that morning, was allowed to get on the aircraft of flight VN651.

The foreign passenger exits the wrong plane before it took off at Tan Son Nhat International Airport on February 20, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The error was discovered just a few minutes before the plane took off, and the flyer was later escorted to the correct flight.

The Southern Airports Authority was then tasked with probing the case.

According to their reports, the situation arose from the malfunction of the boarding pass security system, which lasted for four minutes from 8:56 am to 9:00 am.

The airport employees were required to check passengers’ tickets manually, which eventually led to the mistake.

Relevant parties have also been asked to review the incident carefully in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future.

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