Vietnamese authorities report two missing crew members from a cargo ship that sank in the South China Sea off Vietnam’s south-eastern coast on March 11th.
As local authorities report that the locally registered general cargo vessel, was sailing between Vung Tau and Phu Quy Island in Binh Thuan province when it encountered monsoon rains and wave heights of two to four metres. The ship, transporting approximately 800 tonnes of construction materials, went down about 28 nautical miles off the coast of Binh Thuan,
Local disaster prevention officials deployed available search and rescue (SAR) assets. The first to divert to the area to conduct SAR operations were two Vietnam Coast Guard patrol boats and two Good Samaritan fishing vessels. As a result, five of the seven Individuals on board were rescued by a commercial fishing boat and handed over to local authorities.
Despite the current bad weather, the SAR effort is still underway in an attempt to locate the two other people who were aboard the cargo ship when it sank.