At about 1:20 pm on April 5, the QNg 90610 TS of central Quang Ngai province had its gear box broken and went adrift amid strong winds and a rough sea when it was operating at some 6 nautical miles to the south of Da Loi Reef in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago.
The captain and crew members tried to repair the gear box but failed so they contacted the MRCC to seek help.
The MRCC immediately gave instructions on safety measures and breakdown repairs and prepared a rescue operation. However, in the morning of April 6, the fishermen become tired and panicked after many hours of coping with the increasingly worse weather while they had run out of food and freshwater.
The MRCC then dispatched ship SAR 412 to the site to save the fishermen.
The rescue ship accessed the fishing boat at 6:05pm the same day, provided health care for the fishermen, and tugged the fishing boat to Da Nang.
