HÀ NỘI — The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) said on Thursday that a 24-year-old man has been given a 12-month flight ban after telling security officers at Đà Nẵng Airport that there was a bomb in his checked luggage.

He was also fined VNĐ4 million (US$172) for the joke, reported Giao Thông (Transport) online newspaper.

The CAAV requested domestic and foreign airlines operating in Việt Nam on domestic and international departures to not carry the passenger.

The incident happened on September 3 when the man was about to board flight VJ631 from Đà Nẵng to HCM City. After detecting suspicious items during a screening, security officers asked the man to open his luggage. The man refused to comply and said there was bomb in his bag. It was later discovered that the suspicious item was a laptop charger.

This is not the first time the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has encountered such incidents.

In May this year, authorities issued a one-year flight ban on a female passenger from China after informing a security officer that there was a bomb in her luggage while she was boarding a Vietjet Air flight from Cát Bi Airport in Hải Phòng.

Most false bomb threats in the aviation sector occur with passengers who are unaware of the consequences of their unintentional words. The man flying from Đà Nẵng Airport later acknowledged he had made the comment in anger. However, security officials are required to take any such threats seriously.

According to Vietnamese law, passengers carrying weapons, ammunition, explosives and radioactive substances or providing false information that compromises flight safety are liable for the maximum financial penalty of VNĐ50 million (US$2,150), and put on a no-fly list. — VNS