On the afternoon of February 22, the Office of the National Steering Committee for Civil Defense provided information on search and rescue work related to the waterway accident on Thac Ba Lake.
Accordingly, at 7:00 PM on February 21, 2026, at the Thac Ba lake branch in Lang Moi village, Bao Ai commune, Lao Cai province, a waterway accident occurred between a stone-carrying ship and a passenger ship (the passenger ship had 23 people, rescued 17 survivors, 6 missing people (2 men, 4 women, including 2 children).
The locality mobilized 491 people (Army: 175, Militia: 50, Police: 110, other forces 156) and 43 boats, 18 cars, 12 diving machines, 8 pushers, 2 air compressors to participate in search and rescue.
At 4:30 PM on February 22, search forces discovered 5 bodies (H.D. M, born in 2015; H.T. T, born in 1966; H.T. H, born in 1970, T.T. H, born in 1978; H.T. T, born in 2012). The forces continued to search for the remaining victim (H.V. T, born in 1983).
Late in the afternoon of February 22, information from the Navy Command said that at 5:20 pm, divers of Naval Brigade 126 found the 6th victim in the ship capsizing incident.
Thus, up to now, all 6 victims of the boat capsizing on Thac Ba Lake have been found.
Previously, information from the Navy said that on the night of February 21, Naval Special Forces Brigade 126 (Brigade 126) mobilized 20 experienced frogman special forces along with deep diving machines, rescue boats, air compressors and many other types of rescue equipment from Hai Phong to Thac Ba Lake (Lao Cai) to organize the search for missing victims.
At 6:45 am on February 22, the frogmen teams of Brigade 126 conducted diving inspections inside the capsized ship and searched for victims in the surrounding areas.
After searching for the missing victims of the passenger ship capsizing on Thac Ba Lake, at 7:15 am on February 22, the frogman force of Naval Special Forces Brigade 126 recovered the first victim's body.
Lieutenant Colonel Pham Ngoc Tuan Anh - Deputy Brigade Commander of Brigade 126 - directly commanding the unit's search force said that the unit's divers dived into the sunken ship, expanding the search area for victims.
As previously reported, the incident occurred at about 7:15 pm on February 21 (the 5th day of the Binh Ngo Tet). The passenger ship with license plate YB-0876H collided with the stone ship with license plate YB-0919, causing the passenger ship to capsize and sink, leaving 6 people missing.
At the time of the incident, the ship carrying 23 people (including the driver) was moving from Yen Binh commune to Cam Nhan commune. The passenger ship was owned by Mr. Tran Anh Tuan (47 years old, residing in Bao Ai commune). The stone-carrying ship was identified as belonging to Marble Vietnam Mineral Company (Luc Yen commune).
