Citing aviation authorities, the Giao Thong newspaper under the Ministry of Transport reported Friday that aircraft crew espied 42-year-old Cheng Xin Sheng rummaging through the bag of another passenger on a flight from Sihanoukville to Ho Chi Minh City last Saturday.

Suspicious, they asked the other passenger, whose name and nationality have not been revealed, to check his belongings to see if anything had been taken. The passenger checked and claimed he'd lost $4,500 in cash.

After the plane landed at the Tan Son Nhat Airport, the flight crew and airport security officers carried out an inspection and found the money in Cheng's luggage.

The flight crew later handed the Chinese man to security authorities at Tan Son Nhat Airport who turned him over to HCMC police for further investigation.

Several Chinese nationals been caught stealing from other passengers aboard flights in Vietnam in recent years.

Last August, another Chinese man, Lyu Yuyong, 48, took 229,000 yen ($2,172) from the bag of a Japanese passenger identified as Takahashi on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City. He was also arrested by HCMC police.

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has said that the number of inflight thefts has showed no signs of slowing down for several years now. It uncovered 20 cases in the first seven months of this year and the country's budget carrier Vietjet Air, 11.