Vietnam grounds Tupolev fleet

Vietnam grounds Tupolev fleet

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam Airlines will ground its Tupolev
aircraft from today pending an investigation into the crash of
one of its Tu-134Bs in Cambodia, an official at the national
carrier said yesterday.

He was confirming a television news report which said the
airline was suspending flights by the 1970s-era Soviet aircraft
on both domestic and international routes, but gave no
explanation.

Flight VN815 from Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City crashed just
short of Phnom Penh airport Wednesday, killing all but two of the
66 people on board. Most of the victims were from Taiwan, South
Korea and Hong Kong.

Vietnam Airlines had originally said after the crash that it
had no plans to withdraw the four Tupolevs still operating in its
mostly modern fleet.