Passenger banned from flying for slapping Vietnam Airlines flight attendant

August 18, 2016 | 02:21 am PT
He had already been fined $672 for his violent outburst.

Vietnam's Civil Aviation Administration on Thursday asked foreign and domestic carriers to declare a male passenger 'personna non grata' for six months for slapping an air hostess on a Vietnam Airlines flight last week.

The move came after the passenger, whose name was not revealed, had already been fined VND15 million (US$672) on Wednesday for the same attack.

On August 13, the man was sitting in the business class cabin on his way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.

He called the victim flight attendant Chu Thi Tho over after failing to locate his iPhone 6 Plus.

Tho folded the passenger's table to look for the phone, but to no avail. The passenger then suddenly slapped her across the face. As she ran to the cabin, he was heard threatening the chief of the cabin staff.

He also shouted that he would take complete responsibility for the act.

The passenger later explained to authorities that when he woke up, his phone was not where he had left on the table after his meal. As the plane touched down, he used his spare phone to call the lost one, but it was switched off.

“I thought Tho may have taken my phone, so I asked: 'If you took my phone, give it back,' but she said she didn’t have it. I couldn’t control myself and slapped her,” he told authorities under questioning.

Twenty minutes later after all the passenger had disembarked, another attendant found the lost phone under his seat.

Cashing in on low fuel prices and budget airlines, the new Vietnamese middle class are flying in ever-greater numbers within Southeast Asia, the Financial Times reported in April. The number of Vietnamese who travel by air rose from 62.3 percent to 68.2 percent over the past three years, according to the newspaper.

Related news:

Vietnamese man fined for assaulting flight attendant over lost cell phone

 
 
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