Fight delayed by false bomb threat
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A Vietnam Airlines flight was delayed for over 2 hours at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport yesterday after a foreign passenger claimed he was carrying out a bomb in his luggage.
The VN1316 flight from HCMC to Da Nang City was scheduled to depart at 12:45 but postponed until 15:15.
As he was boarding the plane, 27-year old Frenchman Mariano Francois Xavier Jean Agostini told a female Vietnamese passenger that there was a bomb in his handbag.
Another French passenger who overheard Agostini’s conversation immediately reported to the crew.
The flight was then delayed and all of the 180 passengers were evacuated to the airport terminal.
Airport securities searched Agostini’s handbag and the whole aircraft but didn’t find any bomb.
Agostini told security officers he was just joking.
Airport authorities took away Agostini’s passport and took him off the flight.
The plane took off safely 2 hours and a half later.
