Airline staff fined for letting banned passenger fly

Representatives of Russian Aeroflot Airlines and two local staff have been fined VND4m (USD177) each for letting a banned passenger fly from Hanoi to Moscow at Noi Bai Airport.

Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi

Nguyen Hoai Phuong, director of Northern Airport Authority, said they had worked with related parties to apply fines. Two employees of Noi Bai Airport Security Centre were fined VND4m for failing to follow the procedures. A representative of Aeroflot Airlines was also fined VND4m in accordance with the regulations about administrative fines in civil aviation.

Airlines should have been able to detect and issue warnings about banned passengers when they book the flights or check in. In this particular case, the representative of Aeroflot still agreed to let the passenger fly after being informed about the ban by the check-in employee. The following procedures were carried out as normal.

Pham Thu Thuy, 36, from the northern province of Hai Duong has been prohibited for flights for six months from September 16, 2017, after she had a quarrel with a passenger on another Russian carrier’s flight from Hanoi to Moscow in last August.

After issuing the ban, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam requested Vietnamese airlines and those which operate in Vietnam to refuse to transport Thuy during the time. Airports were also required to tighten security checks to prevent Thuy from taking flights. But she was still found to be on a recent Hanoi-Moscow flight.