The national flagship carrier, Vietnam Airlines, on July 20 decided to cancel flight VN963 from Fukuoka in southern Japan to the capital city of Hanoi after detecting technical problems in its Airbus 320.

The problems were found during a technical check-up after the plane had finished a flight from Hanoi to Fukuoka at 8 am on the same day.

The incident affected more than 100 passengers booked on the flight and other Vietnam Airlines’ flights on the same route.

Vietnam Airlines said the firm had immediately provided the passengers with food and accommodation and on July 21 it sent another Airbus 320 to Fukuoka to pick up the stranded passengers.

The firm also said that its engineers managed to repair the out-of-order plane and it will return to Vietnam later.

According to the Vietnam Airlines office in Japan, the carrier is operating 45 Vietnam-Japan flights, including two flights each week on Hanoi-Fukuoka route.

In the first half of this year, Vietnam Airlines carried 140,000 passengers on the Vietnam-Japan route, up 52 percent over the same period last year.

Incidents are rare on the firm’s flights to Japan, a market where Vietnam Airlines has built up its prestige thanks to safety and an exact schedule of flights./.