The Unlucky Trip of Good Students

Phuong would never have known that the award for being an excellent student would turn into a permanent departure. Ly, however, clung to her mother's shirt and innocently said, "If I had known, I wouldn't have needed to be an excellent student. Now that I'm back, I can't find my two siblings anywhere!"

At 4:30 p.m. on June 5, the bodies of Trinh Kim Phuong (7 years old) and her younger brother Trinh Tien Huy (4 years old, also known as Trinh Huy Hoang, from Bac Kan) were found about one kilometer from the accident site. When the boat brought the two children to shore, their parents cried out their names, causing those around them to cry out in pain.

The bodies of the two children were brought to shore, the father ran to them crying. Photo: Ngoc Truong.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Ha (38 years old) is at the Da Nang Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital taking care of her 2 children and 5 grandchildren in the group of 21 people who were in the accident on the Thao Van 2 ship. Although she was heartbroken when she heard the news, she quickly reassured them. "What's lost is lost, no one wants this pain. Luckily, we found the bodies so the two children can return home to rest in peace," she said.

Ms. Ha, who was 7 months pregnant, was lucky to survive when the Thao Van 2 boat, carrying twice the number of passengers allowed, capsized and sank on the Han River on the evening of June 4. Calmly, Ms. Ha said that after the school year ended, all 9 children in the extended family were excellent students, so everyone decided to reward them with a trip.

The group of 6 people from Bac Kan and 13 people from Thai Nguyen decided to go to Hue so that the children could learn about the history of the ancient capital, then conveniently go to Da Nang, where my brother-in-law and his wife live, to swim and sightsee. "We discussed going on a boat trip on the Han River, down to the Dragon Bridge to see the iron dragon breathing fire and water," she recounted.

My brother-in-law bought tickets for the Thao Van 2 tourist boat for everyone. Because they had been out all day, when they got on the boat, the children did not run around and play, but sat on their parents' laps and fell asleep. About 10 minutes later, the boat moved very slowly, suddenly tilted to one side and in a split second capsized into the river.

In the chaos, many people clung to each other and accidentally pulled them into the water. Ms. Ha used all her strength to escape and floated on the water, grabbing onto anything nearby to avoid drowning. Her two daughters Thao (9 years old) and Ly (13 years old) knew how to swim, so the mother was less worried. Her husband, Mr. Hung, quickly went to save the others.

Seven months pregnant, fortunately surviving but losing two grandchildren, Ms. Ha said "this trip was a fateful trip". Photo: Nguyen Dong.

"At that time, everyone stood and sat on the floating part of the capsized ship, including Phuong and Hoang. But when they saw the shadow of the canoe passing by, many people panicked, so the ship capsized again, throwing everyone into the water. And Phuong and Hoang went missing when they slipped out of their parents' arms who were drowning," said Ms. Ha.

When rescued, the seven children in the group were all hospitalized in a state of panic. A day later, their spirits improved. Ly, lying on the hospital bed, when she learned that her aunt's two younger siblings were missing, grabbed her mother's hand and said: "If I had known, I wouldn't have needed to be an excellent student anymore. Now that I've come back, I can't find my two younger siblings anywhere." Thao said: "Next time, I won't go far, I won't go to sea anymore."

Ms. Ha said this trip was a "fateful trip". When the ship crashed, all of her belongings were lost, and she had no phone to contact anyone. "What I worry about most is that the children may suffer psychological trauma, affecting their studies. Even when I close my eyes, the horrifying scene comes back to me, let alone the children," she said.

While taking care of her child in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (Da Nang Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital), Ms. Luu Phuong Thuy said that last night when the ship sank, she lost her daughter Nguyen Luu Bao Han (7 years old). "I ran everywhere looking for her, thinking she was missing like the two other children on the ship. It wasn't until 11pm that I found her at the Son Tra District Medical Station. The mother and daughter hugged each other, happy but unable to cry because they were too panicked," Ms. Thuy said.

Ms. Thuy's daughter was an excellent student with 2 perfect scores, so the family decided to take her to Da Nang for a week of summer vacation, starting June 1. The group of 8 people from Hanoi stayed at a resort by the sea. Every day, Ms. Thuy took her daughter to the swimming pool to teach her how to hold her breath. After 4 days, Bao Han got used to the water.

"I told her that I remembered how my mother taught me to hold my breath, so when I was sinking, I held my breath for about ten seconds and then tried to come up to the surface to breathe, raising my hands high and people would see and come to my rescue," Thuy said, adding that her husband worked at the Party Committee of the Central Agencies and was on a business trip to Truong Sa so he did not go with the group.

Ms. Thuy takes care of her daughter Bao Han at the hospital. On the night of June 4, the Da Nang Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital received 16 pediatric patients from the shipwreck. Photo: Nguyen Dong.

When the ship sank, Ms. Thuy was holding her 10-month-old daughter Nguyen Ngoc Quy Phuong, so when everyone was scattered, she could not find Bao Han. "I kept holding Phuong tightly. She did not know how to swim, so I used one arm and two legs to try to kick to carry her to the surface of the water. I grabbed a life jacket or a chair and floated for a while before sinking," Ms. Thuy said, adding that she was later rescued by nearby tourist boats.

"The child was so scared that he cried all night but didn't have to be hospitalized. Bao Han had a fever of 40 degrees and only got better today," the mother said. Fearing that her child would suffer a psychological crisis, she kept talking about the toys she liked all day to help Bao Han forget about last night's events. "When you get home, you have to learn to swim really well and remind your friends to learn to swim so they don't drown," Ms. Thuy told her child.

Earlier, at around 8:30 p.m. on June 4, the Thao Van 2 tourist boat was supposed to have 28 seats (including the driver) but carried 56 passengers, including 18 children. The boat had just left the dock for about 10 minutes when it sank. Nearby tourist boats managed to rescue more than 40 people, and a few victims who knew how to swim made it to shore. Three people were missing, including two children, Phuong and Hoang, and a man from Binh Dinh. All three were found on the afternoon of June 5.

The Thao Van 2 boat sank on the Han River in 2014, carrying 10 passengers, but fortunately everyone was safe. The Da Nang government said that this boat was converted from a fishing boat, had a registration certificate but was not registered to transport passengers but was doing "illegal tourism". Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested Da Nang to quickly prosecute the case, investigate those involved in the violations of the Thao Van 2 boat to bring them to trial soon.

According to VNE