Mental patient sneaks onto Vietnamese aircraft without ticket

Five employees at a central Vietnamese airport have been punished for allowing a man to slip through security and board a plane.

The male passenger was discovered on a Vietnam Airlines plane that was set to fly from Vinh to Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday afternoon without a boarding pass.

Flight attendants were unable to find him on the passenger list, so they called airport security to escort him off the plane. The incident caused a 40-minute delay.

An initial investigation found that the man had scaled a wall around the airport in Nghe An Province, and managed to bypass security barriers to reach the aircraft.

His family has provided documents showing the 21-year-old is undergoing mental treatment, so he will not be held accountable for his actions.

Four security agents at Vinh International Airport have been fined VND10 million ($440) each and had their licenses revoked for two months. A ground service staff member has also been fined VND4 million.

They have been held responsible for the security breach that endangered flight safety, aviation authorities said.

Vietnam has seen a recent boom in air travel. The country served more than 94 million air passengers in 2017, a 16 percent increase from the previous year.