Suspect who threatens to shoot down Vietnam Airlines plane arrested
VOV.VN - Japanese police have announced the arrest of a 17-year-old boy in Yamagata prefecture on suspicion of the forcible obstruction of business after he threatened to shoot down a Vietnam Airlines passenger plane as it flew over Tokyo Bay in early January.
According to the police, they were able to trace the phone number which made the threat and subsequently arrested the boy, with the suspect later admitting to making the phone call.
Police said the boy suffers from a mental disability.
This comes following the Vietnam Airlines branch office in Japan receiving a call one morning in January from a man who claimed he was an American, despites peaking in a Japanese accent, threatening to shoot down the plane passing Tokyo Bay if it did not head back to Narita.
According to Japan Today, the boy made the call from his home in Yamagata Prefecture and claimed that he was “going to shoot down” Flight VN 5311, so the pilots “should turn the plane around”.
The Vietnam Airlines plane had been in the process of carrying 47 passengers, together with a 15-member crew, onboard a flight from Narita in Japan to the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
The plane was therefore forced to land at Fukuoka airport where a safety assessment was conducted and further investigations were carried out.
After the conclusion of the initial investigations, the plane was permitted to continue its journey on to Hanoi, where it successfully landed at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on the same day.
