On the morning of July 21, speaking with Lao Dong reporter, Mr. Vu Manh Long, Director of the Waterway and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection Port Authority of Quang Ninh province (under the Department of Construction of Quang Ninh province) said: After the Green Bay 58 ship sank on the afternoon of July 19, the Waterway Port Authority is reviewing all ships operating in Ha Long Bay.
During thunderstorms, tens of thousands of tourists are still in Ha Long Bay
According to the leader of the Quang Ninh Provincial Waterways and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection Port Authority, every day, the Quang Ninh Provincial Hydrometeorological Station issues 3 bulletins on the weather situation in the bay. Based on these bulletins, the Port Authority will grant licenses to passenger ships for sightseeing.
On July 19, the Green Bay 58 ship was licensed to leave the port at 12:35. At this time, there is no urgent warning bulletin from the Quang Ninh Hydrometeorological Station about thunderstorms. At 1:30 p.m., when there was a warning from the Hydrometeorological Station, the Port Authority stopped licensing ships to the bay. At that time, the Green Bay 58 ship was on its way to Ha Long Bay and had an accident. At 2:52 p.m., when the thunderstorms passed, the port issued a license for the ships to return.
On July 19, from morning to 1:30 p.m., the Department of Waterways and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection of Quang Ninh province licensed 578 ships carrying 25,458 visitors to Ha Long Bay. After the thunderstorms passed, the Port Authority licensed 49 ships carrying 4,145 passengers to continue to visit the bay" - Director of the Quang Ninh Province Waterway and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection Port Authority Vu Manh Long informed.
The port authority only manages ships through the GPS positioning system
Explaining why the Green Bay 58 ship sank at 1:30 p.m. and why the rescue work was not started until 3:30 p.m., Mr. Vu Manh Long said: Currently, tourist boats operating in Ha Long Bay are still managed by the Port Authority using the GPS positioning system and Zalo groups. If there is any sudden notification, the Port Authority will still notify quickly using this group.
However, according to the representative of the Waterway Port Authority and the Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspectorate of Quang Ninh province, the GPS positioning system still has to use a phone network to operate, so in low-lying areas and low-lying areas in the bay that cannot be fully covered by the telecommunications network, there is still a phenomenon of losing GPS signal. But this loss of signal usually only happens for a few minutes and then is reconnected.
"For the Green Bay 58 ship, at 2:05 p.m., the management system of the Waterway Port Authority and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection of Quang Ninh province discovered that the ship had lost its GPS signal, so we contacted the on-duty team to check again. But because it was a thunderstorm and strong winds at that time, the group had not yet discovered the sunken ship, but only thought the ship lost signal due to lost waves" - said the leader of the Inland Waterway Port Authority.
When the thunderstorms passed, after checking and verifying, at 3:30 p.m., the authorities discovered that the blue Bay ship had sunk. At this time, rescue work was deployed throughout the province. However, at this time, the number of deaths is too many.
Also according to the representative of the Quang Ninh Province Waterway and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection Port Authority, currently, the Port Authority only manages ships through the GPS positioning system. Some ships have installed an AIS system (an automatic identification system, using radio waves for ships, especially large ships, to exchange identification information and locations with shore stations), but are still in the testing phase, operated by a unit of the Ministry of Construction (former Ministry of Transport). The Department of Waterways and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection of Quang Ninh province does not manage this system.
Due to the use of a GPS positioning system via phone signal, when reaching the poor signal area, the positioning system loses signal, so when the ship capsizes, no distress signal is sent to the mainland. The GPS system also does not have the function of warning of sunken ships" - said the leader of the Department of Waterways and Inland Waterway Vehicle Inspection of Quang Ninh province.
