Staff suspended after plane lands at wrong city in Vietnam

Four flight dispatchers and the crew of a plane that landed at the wrong airport in Vietnam last week have been suspended.

The VietJet Air flight carrying nearly 200 passengers flew to Cam Ranh airport, near the beach town Nha Trang on Thursday, instead of its scheduled destination of Da Lat, a popular tourist destination in the highlands about 130 kilometres away.

A VietJet spokesman told The Nation that the error was due to a miscommunication between the crew and the dispatchers.

The Civil Aviation Authority said the licences of the VietJet crew and dispatchers had been temporarily withdrawn over the weekend "for failing to work in accordance with standard flight operations".

Flight VJ8575 left Hanoi at 5.40pm on 19 June heading for Da Lat. But passengers were shocked to find they had landed at Cam Ranh airport, over 100km away, instead.

According to Tuoi Tre News, it emerged that VJ8575 had been scheduled to fly to Cam Ranh, but a re-schedule was later made for it to fly to Da Lat. But the pilot had not been informed of this change.

Following the incident, Vietjet Air arranged another flight to take the passengers to Da Lat, and they arrived at the Lien Khuong airport at 9:50pm the same day.

A Vietjet Air spokesman said in a statement on Friday that the pilot of flight VJ8575 had changed course because the wind conditions in Da Lat were not suitable for a landing.

But chief investigator Tan said the pilot had not been informed of the flight plan change and had followed the wrong course.

Related articles

Huge jumbo jet gets stuck after landing at wrong airport

Pilot lands commuter plane at wrong airport

Huge military plane lands on tiny runway at wrong airport