On the evening of 21/2, a passenger boat registered in Yen Bai, carrying 23 people, collided with a stone transport boat and capsized on Thac Ba Lake. The accident left six people missing, though 17 were rescued. The following morning, 22/2, hundreds of military officers, police, and local forces continued the search for the missing victims.

20 frogmen with equipment from Naval Commando Brigade 126 traveled from Hai Phong to Lao Cai overnight to join the search.

At 6:45 AM, frogmen teams dived to inspect the hull of the capsized boat and search the surrounding area. After 30 minutes, naval commandos recovered the first body, that of 11-year-old Hoang Duc Manh, near the sunken boat's bow.

Five people remain missing: Hoang Van Thuan, 43; Hoang Thi Tuyet, 60; Trieu Thi Huan, 48; Hoang Thi Hoa, 46; and Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy, 14.

Directly commanding the frogmen at the scene, Lieutenant Colonel Pham Ngoc Tuan Anh, Deputy Commander of Brigade 126, stated that dense fog on the lake this morning severely limited visibility. The search depth is approximately 12-15 meters. "Our unit's divers have entered the sunken boat but have not found any additional victims and are expanding the search area," he said.

Divers meticulously checked their equipment before descending into the lake. Naval Commando Brigade 126 is highly experienced, with capabilities including swimming tens of kilometers at sea with gear, diving tens of meters deep, and enduring long hours of survival drifting. The unit has a history of participating in significant rescue operations, such as the Vietship01 ship stranded at Cua Viet, the search for the Su30MK2, Casa212, and Bell-505 aircraft lost at sea, and locating missing persons from the Phong Chau bridge collapse in Phu Tho.

The temperature in the area was around 20 degrees Celsius; the rain had stopped, but it was windy, and the lake water was cold.

In addition to official rescue vehicles, many local fishing boats and other rescue teams were mobilized to join the search.

A bonfire was lit to warm the divers as they came ashore.

The Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee issued a directive instructing the Provincial Police to promptly investigate the cause of the accident. It also called for increased inspection and control of inland waterway traffic, particularly in the Thac Ba Lake area. Strict implementation was mandated for managing transport routes, passenger transport operations, registration, technical safety conditions of vessels, and passenger compliance with regulations.

Thac Ba Lake is located on the Chay River and is now part of Lao Cai province following administrative boundary adjustments. It is one of the three largest artificial lakes in the country, spanning nearly 20.000 hectares, over 80 km long, 8-10 km wide, with depths reaching 45 meters in some areas, and featuring over 1.000 large and small islands.

Hoang Phuong - Viet An