A Vietnam Airlines flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang City had to be delayed for over 2 hours on May 14 when a foreign passenger claimed to have a bomb in his baggage.
The VN1316 flight was scheduled to depart at 12:45 from Tan Son Nhat Airport. On way to boarding the plane, passenger Mariano Francois Xavier Jean Agostini, a French national born in 1984, told a female Vietnamese passenger that there was a bomb in his handbag.
While the two were talking to each other, another French passenger overheard Agostini’s conversation and immediately reported it to the flight crewmembers after everyone was seated on the plane.
The airport security immediately checked the aircraft and searched Agostini’s handbag. This caused the flight to be delayed.
When the security personnel did not find any bomb, they questioned Agostini who said that he was simply joking.
Airport authorities documented the incident, confiscated Agostini’s passport, and off-loaded him from the flight.
The plane finally took off after a two and a half hour delay, at 15:15 hours.
