On the afternoon of July 22, at the Hall of the Fire and Rescue Team in Phu Quoc area, the Fire and Rescue Police Department of An Giang Provincial Police organized a meeting to comprehensively draw experience from the rescue work of the waterway traffic accident caused by a passenger canoe sinking of Minh Huy PQ Tourism Co., Ltd. (OCEAN PEARL TRAVEL) occurring in An Thoi sea area, Phu Quoc special zone on July 11, 2026.
At the meeting, delegates focused on comprehensively assessing the process of deploying rescue and relief work from the time of receiving the report to completing the task. The conference analyzed and clarified each stage in command and operation work; mobilization of forces and vehicles; coordination between functional forces at sea; organization of search and rescue of victims; ensuring communication, logistics and handling of situations arising during the implementation of tasks.
The opinions frankly pointed out the achieved results, and at the same time recognized the difficulties and limitations that still exist in practice to draw practical lessons learned. Through this, the units proposed many solutions to continue to improve the coordination mechanism, improve the effectiveness of command and operation, the ability to mobilize forces, vehicles and handle waterway traffic accident situations, especially incidents occurring at sea in complex weather conditions, wide search scope and unpredictable developments.
The conference also emphasized the requirement to strengthen state management of waterway passenger transport activities; regularly inspect the technical safety conditions of vehicles, life-saving equipment, and the capacity of the crew; and at the same time promote propaganda and guidance for transport businesses and people to strictly comply with the provisions of law on waterway traffic safety, contributing to minimizing the risk of accidents.
As reported, a regrettable waterway accident occurred to an Indian tourist group on July 11 in the An Thoi sea area.
Cave with license plate AG-26751 (boat captained by Mr. Nguyen Hong Hai, born in 1969) carrying 32 Indian tourists and 3 crew members and 1 Vietnamese guide moved from Hon May Rut Ngoai to An Thoi International Port. After leaving the wharf about 400m, a cave sinking incident occurred. At about 3:40 pm on the same day, rescue and relief work was completed, bringing 36 people ashore, of which 21 people were rescued, but 15 unfortunately died.
