Vietnam Civil Aviation Flight 509

A group of hijackers: Lam Van Tu, Tran Van Tu, Nguyen Minh Van and Tran Van Hai hijacked the flight approximately 15 minutes after it took off from Tan Son Nhat International Airport. The radio operator and the flight mechanic had been killed and a steward knifed and shot by the hijackers. The hijackers pointed guns at the captain and co-pilot, forcing them to fly to Singapore, but due to insufficient fuel, the crew requested to fly over U-Tapao Air Base (Thailand) to refuel before continuing on to Singapore. After refueling, the plane took off for Singapore and requested permission to land at Changi Airport . The Singaporean government refused permission to land at Changi and demanded a landing at Seletar Airport at 17:35 (ex-UTC+07:30). After approximately 5 hours of negotiations, the hijackers surrendered in 21:00 (ex-UTC+07:30) their weapons and were granted political asylum. All passengers, crew, the aircraft involved in the incident, and the remains of the two deceased crew members were repatriated to Vietnam. ==In popular culture==

The incident also inspired the film Hijacked by director Ham Tran, released in 2025. The plane itself which the incident occurred was also used as a setting for the movie. ==References==