HCMC – Two fishing boats in the central Binh Dinh Province sank when they were on their way to the typhoon shelters, leaving 26 fishermen on board missing, according to the Border Guard Commands of Khanh Hoa and Binh Dinh provinces.
Fishing boat BD 96388 TS with 12 people on board sank at around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27, when it was moving to a port in Khanh Hoa’s Cam Ranh City to avoid typhoon Molave. The captain of the boat was Le Van Minh, aged 44, a resident of Binh Dinh.
By 1:30 p.m., fishing boat BD 98658 TS, whose captain was Nguyen Van Toan, approached the sunken boat but was yet to find the missing fishermen.
The border guard force asked fishing boats in the area to support the sunken boat and sought help from the Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center Region 4 to aid the rescue operation.
The rescue efforts were challenging due to strong winds and high waves at the scene of the incident.
Besides this, another fishing boat, BD 97469, with 14 fishermen on board and whose captain was Vo Ngoc Doan, sank at 4:30 p.m. in the day while heading toward the mainland to avoid the typhoon. The families of the fishermen sought search and rescue support, as they were unable to contact them.
Nguyen Xuan Binh, director of the Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center Region 4, said the center was stepping up efforts to contact these boats but had failed. Most of the boats operating near the two had moved to the typhoon shelters. The center has cooperated with other agencies to assist with the search for the vessels.
