Two foreign pilots released after false drug arrest at Vietnam airport
Two foreign pilots of a Vietnamese carrier have been released following a detention at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on August 18, after the white powder customs found in their luggage were verified as not being narcotics as suspected.
Test results found that the white substances are in fact plastic powder, the Vietnam News Agency reported on August 20, citing an official from the Criminal Science Institute under the Ministry of Public Security.
The pilots were therefore set free, with the Vietnamese airline they work for having confirmed the release, according to the news agency.
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| Passengers wait for their luggage to be scanned at the customs section at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on April 7, 2015. |
At 11:05 pm on August 18, Filipino pilot Elmer Ederadan Sorrea and his American colleague Francis Dennis Abellera Yutangco were held by customs at the Hanoi airport, as they were boarding a Cebu Paciffic Air flight to Manila.
Sorre, 45, and Yutangco, 53, said they both work for a Vietnamese carrier and are on a leave.
Customs officers found a model aircraft with white powder inside the baggage of Sorrea, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
A quick drug indicator test showed that the white substance turned the same color that signals opiates, the Vietnam News Agency said. The group of opiates includes opium, heroin and morphine.
Customs then booked the case and kept the two in custody for further verification.
