A cruise ship flipped over at the famous tourist destination Halong Bay in Vietnam, widely known in Korea. The incident resulted in 34 deaths and 8 people missing. Most of the passengers were local tourists, and it has been determined that there were no Koreans among the victims.
According to Vietnamese media VN Express on the 19th (local time), a tourism cruise ship capsized around 1:30 p.m. in Halong Bay, Quang Ninh Province.
The accident involved the cruise ship named Wonder Sea, also known as Vinh Xanh 58.
At the time of departure, there were a total of 53 people on board, including 48 passengers and 5 crew members. Most of the passengers were Vietnamese family tourists from the capital, Hanoi, and among them, more than 20 were children.
The ship departed at 12:55 p.m. and was scheduled to follow a tour course in Halong Bay. However, tragedy struck about 30 minutes after departure when the clear sky suddenly darkened, accompanied by strong gusts, hail, and lightning. The ship was overturned by the strong winds, and all passengers fell into the water.
Immediately after receiving the accident report, the Quang Ninh authorities dispatched about 300 personnel and 27 ships, along with 2 small boats from the border defense force, navy, and marine police to the scene. Rescue teams conducted an overnight search operation and rescued 11 people.
At the same time, 34 bodies were recovered. The search for the 8 missing people is ongoing.
There was also a 14-year-old boy who was dramatically rescued after surviving for over 4 hours inside the capsized hull. A member of the rescue team explained the situation at that time, saying, “There was a space of about 50 to 60 cm (an air pocket) inside the hull, allowing the child to breathe.”
Experts pointed to localized severe weather known as a super thunderstorm as the cause of the accident.
Mai Van Kiem, director of the Vietnam National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, noted in an interview with VN Express, “The combination of the tropical convergence zone passing through the northern region and high surface temperatures created strong upward currents,” and analyzed, “This type of thunderstorm is accompanied by very heavy rain and dangerous weather phenomena.”
Additionally, it was clarified that there was no impact from Typhoon Wipha, which some had suggested. At the time of the accident, the typhoon was over 1,000 km away from Halong Bay.
It was also confirmed that there was appropriate weather forecasting prior to the incident. The Quang Ninh meteorological station issued a warning about the possibility of localized gusts at 11:45 a.m. on the day of the accident.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed condolences to the victims' families and instructed Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha to oversee the rescue operations at the scene. Quang Ninh Province decided to provide condolence payments of 25 million dong (approximately 1,350,000 won) for the families of the deceased and 8 million dong (approximately 430,000 won) for the injured.
The South Korean Embassy in Vietnam stated, “Based on confirmation from Vietnamese authorities, it has been determined that there were no Korean passengers on board,” and added, “We are continuously monitoring the situation.”