Vietnamese beats flight attendant when asked to move to his allocated seat

Vietnam aviation authorities fined a man VND15 million ($660) this week for slapping a flight attendant in the face when she asked him to go back to his allocated seat.

The 36-year-old passenger was flying from Hai Phong in northern Vietnam to Da Lat in the Central Highlands with the low-cost carrier VietJet on December 29.

He did not take the seat specified on his boarding pass and was asked to move, but he refused and slapped the attendant.

The authorities imposed the fine on Wednesday.

Low-cost carriers and the rise of middle-income earners have seen rapid growth in Vietnam’s aviation industry. The country served the record number of 94 million air passengers in 2017, up 16 percent against the previous year.

But the crowded air has come with many brawls that made unprecedented headlines.

Last month, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam banned a woman and her husband from flying for one year after they failed to pay the VND4 million fine for fighting on a domestic flight. They were seated a row apart and had quarreled across other passengers before she turned and punched him.

A Vietnamese man was also fined VND15 million in November for giving another passenger a bloody nose while they were boarding a Hanoi-Saigon flight and the latter refused to give back his aisle seat.