Passenger takes flight in mid-air

SOFIA (Reuter) - A man parachuted from a Bulgarian airliner flying between Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh city after forcing the crew to open an emergency exit over Vietnam, airline officials said yesterday.

'The crew of the Airbus 310 was forced to take the plane closer to the ground by a passenger, presumed to be Vietnamese, at around 15.00 GMT,' said Konstantin Taskov, the deputy director general of the private Bulgarian Jess Air company. 'Then he ordered them to open an emergency exit, threw out some leaflets and shocked everybody by parachuting out of the plane.'

Mr Taskov said the Vietnamese authorities were now searching for the man.