Hanoi:
A Vietnamese airline has been fined for hosting a mid-flight dance by bikini-clad beauty pageant contestants without first gaining permission, state media said on Thursday.
Low-cost carrier VietJet Air was fined $1,000 by the nation's aviation authorities for organising the Hawaiian-themed dance to celebrate its maiden flight between Ho Chi Minh City and the tourist hub of Nha Trang, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.
Five women, all candidates in a local beauty contest, performed the three-minute dance on the August 3 flight while passengers recorded the show on camera phones and later posted clips online, the paper added.
The airline "violated local aviation regulations" by organising "an unapproved show on a flight," Nguyen Trong Thang, chief inspector of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, was quoted as saying in the report.
Thang added the pictures were taken while mobile phones were in flight-safe mode and did not pose any risk.
The incident has stirred public debate in conservative Vietnam after photographs and video clips of the sultry performance spread on the Internet.