Vietnam warns Beijing over air safety threat after unannounced flights in South China Sea add fuel to territorial dispute
Hanoi says China flew over its air space to reach contested Spratly Islands, lodges complaint with United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization
Vietnam’s civil aviation authority has accused Beijing of threatening regional air safety by conducting unannounced flights through its airspace to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, state media said Saturday.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) warned that the unannounced flights “threaten the safety of all flights in the region,” according to a report in the Tuoi Tre Daily newspaper.
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In quotes published in Vietnam’s official online newspaper Zing.vn late Friday, CAAV director Lai Xuan Thanh said a protest letter about the flights had been sent to Beijing, as well as a complaint to the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
“Chinese aircraft have ignored all the rules and norms of the ICAO by not providing any flight plans or maintaining any radio contact with Vietnam’s air traffic control centre,” he added.
Over the last week, Vietnam logged 46 incidents of Chinese planes flying without warning through airspace monitored by air traffic control in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, according to civilian aviation authorities quoted in the newspaper report.