A VietJetAir Airbus A320-200, registration VN-A695 has landed on a closed runway on a technical return to the airport.
The aircraft was performing flight VJ-689 from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). The crew stopped the climb out of Nha Trang’s Cam Ranh Airport’s runway 02 at FL130 due to a technical problem. The subsequently entered a hold south of Nha Trang and decided to return to Nha Trang. The aircraft’s transponder stopped transmitting position data after the second holding pattern. The aircraft then approached runway 02, however, landed on the already finished but not yet opened runway 02R instead of runway 02. There were no injuries and no damage.
Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority reported the aircraft departed Nha Trang at 11:14L (04:14Z). It was climbing out a few minutes after takeoff when the crew received a warning indication of a technical problem. The crew decided to return to Cam Ranh Airport for an emergency landing, however, mistakenly landed on a runway that was completed but not yet opened. The CAA assigned an investigation team and opened an investigation. Soon after the CAA decided to suspend all staff by VietJetAir involved in the operation of this flight. They also prohibit the airline to introduce new routes and to put VietJetAir under special monitoring.
Earlier in the year a Vietjet A321 also landed on this closed runway while it was still under construction.
