Search for missing Nghe An sailors in Bach Long Vy sea area suspended

The Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center said the search for the missing crew member had to be temporarily suspended since yesterday (July 24).

Currently, the authorities are proposing 3 options, including: Issuing a maritime notice to all vehicles passing through the area of ​​the shipwreck to immediately notify the Search and Rescue Center if they detect a strange object.

Second, Vietnamese authorities will exchange and consult with countries and international organizations on best search experiences. The third solution is to hire a dredging team to search the entire area around the sunken fishing boat.

Authorities are searching for nine missing crew members.

Previously, on July 19, a team of dredgers was hired to search for the body, and at 11:30 a.m. on July 21, they discovered part of the body at sea. On July 23, the dredgers once again scanned the search area but found no results. By 5:00 p.m. the same day, they had withdrawn from the scene. Therefore, Vietnamese authorities are implementing options 1 and 2 to have a basis for calculating the next options.

Regarding the remote-controlled emergency intervention device Irov-VN08 sent by the Ministry of National Defense, Mr. Nguyen Van Thach - Director of the Traffic Safety Department (Ministry of Transport) said that the search support device had completed its survey diving mission and determined the location of the sunken fishing boat, but due to the fishing net covering the hull of the boat, it was unable to reach deep inside the boat.

Previously, at around 1:00 p.m. on June 28, the Pacific 01 ship collided with the fishing boat NA 95899 TS (with 19 crew members on board) at coordinates 19032.334N; 107042.263E, 14.5 nautical miles from the demarcation line of the Gulf of Tonkin on the Chinese side and about 34 nautical miles south of Bach Long Vi Island.

Immediately after the accident, the search and rescue forces promptly deployed to carry out search and rescue. Nine crew members on the fishing boat were rescued and one unfortunate body was found, which was handed over to the local authorities and their families. The remaining nine crew members are missing.

Up to now, the search for the missing crew members of NA 95899 TS has discovered 2 bodies and 1 other body part, but because these bodies are all deformed, the search and rescue team has brought them to shore, handed them over to the authorities for DNA testing and is waiting for the results to determine their identities.