Vietnam Airlines has suspended a pilot and his crew after he reportedly pressed the wrong button in the cockpit and accidentally triggered a hijack alert while attempting to request an emergency landing.
The mistake sparked panic on the ground as air traffic controllers believed that the passenger jet had been overtaken by terrorists during a domestic flight.
It occurred on Tuesday night while the pilot was attempting to enter an emergency code (7700) after the plane suffered a technical fault while flying from Ho Chi Minh City to the northern town of Vinh.
The incident sparked panic as air traffic controllers feared the plane had been overtaken by terrorists
Instead, the captain entered the hijacking code (7500) and inadvertently placed the flight under a heightened state of emergency.
Passengers were unaware that a hijack alert had been sent, but there were some tense moments in the cabin as oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling due to a sudden drop in cabin pressure.
The plane was forced to descend from an altitude of 35,000ft to 13,000ft.
Vietnam Airlines says the hijack alert had nothing to do with the plane’s emergency landing in Hanoi
The technical problem forced the Airbus A321 to make an emergency landing at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.
The plane landed safely and tranh gỗ treo tường phòng khách there were no injuries to its 135 passengers, who were delayed for nearly three hours, or https://tranhmaihuong.com/tranh-go-vinh-quy-bai-to-kho-lon/ seven crew.
Vietnam Airlines said the emergency landing had nothing to do with the hijack alert.
There were tense moments on the plane as oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling (file photo)
Airline spokesman Le Truong Giang told Thanhnien News that Czech captain Pechanec Marek, co-pilot Do Hoang Nam and five other crew members have been suspended.
They are barred from returning to work until the conclusion of an investigation by the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV).
Investigators have downloaded information from the plane’s flight recorder and interviewed the flight crew to learn more about what happened.
In a similar incident last month, Austria’s military deployed two fighter jets to escort a Turkish Airlines plane after its pilot inadvertently set off a hijack alarm.
It occurred when the plane lost cabin pressure and the pilot attempted to declare an emergency.
The plane was flying from Frankfurt to Istanbul, tranh gỗ đồng quê and was forced to make an emergency landing in Vienna.