The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has suspended the crew and several ground officers who involved in the landing mistake by local private airline VietJet Air on June 19, an official said.

Flight VJ 8861 with 200 passengers on board departing Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi landed at the Cam Ranh airport near the beachside city of Nha Trang in the central province of Khanh Hoa instead of its supposed destination of Lien Khuong airport in the highlands city of Da Lat.

CAAV Director Lai Xuan Thanh said the authority suspended flying licences of Captain Pavel Ondrej and his co-pilot Amin Hassiri, along with Chief attendant Phan Thi Huong Trang for 30 days.

It also suspended the director and deputy director of the flight procedure unit of Noi Bai Airport until July 31 for re-training, while a staff of the unit and an air traffic controller had their working licence suspended.

The Director of VietJet Air’s Operations Management Centre Elvis Gilbert was also suspended until August 1.

In addition, the regulator also imposed administrative fines on some units and other individuals.

The CAAV said the direct reason for the landing mistake is that the change of the flight plan was not communicated to all relevant units of VietJet Air, including the flight’s crew.

Besides, the flight coordinator at Noi Bai airport that day was not licensed to do this kind of work, while the airline’s ground service staff violated the implementation process of flight plan.

The authority said the mistake was a serious incident, threatening aviation safety.

It asked all parties concerned, namely VietJet Air, the Airport Corporation of Vietnam, the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation, the Northern Airport Authority, to seriously draw lessons from the incident.-VNA