Vietnam Airlines 777 narrowly escapes being shot down
From "Der Spiegel" online edition: (rough translation):
A story is just emerging as to how about 200 passengers on a Vietnam Airlines 777 flying from Hanoi to Frankfurt just narrowly escaped being shot down. According to "Viet Nam Net" the 777 was en route during the night of 17/18 April, using air space in Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic for over 65 minutes without any radio communications. As the plane deviated from the prescribed flight path, Czech authorities were prepared to shoot it down, according to "Viet Nam Net" online magazine.
Jan Pejsek of the Czech Ministry of Defence confirmed these events to Der Spiegel in principle. At 0545 on 18th April 2006, Czech Air Force personnel detected what to them was an unidentifable aircraft which had not communicated with Prague ATC. Considering the possibility that this could be an unfriendly military aircraft, two fighter jets were sent up to intercept the plane. However, the target turned out to be a Vietnamese civilian jet, and a few minutes after visual contact with the fighter jets, radio communications were established.
According to Vietnamese media reports, the fighter pilots were astonished to see that both pilots of the Vietnam Airlines plane were asleep. "They were asleep and had the plane flying on autopilot for one hour and five minutes", says "Viet Nam Net". There is neither confirmation or rejection of this from Czech authorities.
Whilst Vietnam Airlines have denied the report, the entire crew, including cabin crew has been suspended. (Apparently, there are standing orders for a cabin crew member to visit the cockpit every 15 minutes to establish that all is well up front).
The report goes on to describe various scandals that have shaken Vietnam Airlines, including the recent arrest of F/O Tran Van Dang at Sydney for trying to take out US$ 500,000 from Australia without declaring this money.