Four Vietnamese fishermen are safe after their boat sank in the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea. Another fishing boat picked them up and brought them to Tran De port, in Can Tho city, on 23 October 2026.
Vietnam's Border Guard received the four men. Military medics checked them. The Border Guard says all four are in stable condition and healthy.
What happened
The boat was the BTh-80712-TS. It is a 12.3-metre fishing boat for line fishing, with a 56-horsepower engine. The captain, aged 44, and three crew members all come from Mui Ne, in Lam Dong province. The boat left port at 2:00 on 19 October.
Early on 21 October, the boat met big waves and strong wind and sank. The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) says this happened about 153 nautical miles from Tran De fishing port. One nautical mile is 1.852 kilometres.
On the afternoon of 21 October, the Lam Dong Border Guard heard that the boat had sunk. The wreck was about 43 nautical miles south-southeast of Mui Ne Bay. It was about 1 nautical mile from the Su Tu Trang (White Lion) oil platform, about 77 nautical miles east of Vung Tau.
That evening, another vessel working near the platform reported the wreck. It was partly under water, with only the bow above the sea. No people were seen nearby.
The search and the rescue
The Border Guard asked boats in the area to watch out and help with the search. Rescue boats also went to the area, but they did not find the men. On the morning of 22 October, waves were 1.5 to 2.5 metres high, so the search was difficult.
But the men were already safe. A fishing support boat, the CT-00787-TS from Can Tho, had found them and taken them on board. The police newspaper of Ho Chi Minh City says the four men were floating in a round basket boat when they were found.
Two Vietnamese reports say the rescue happened at 1:20 on 21 October. The VNA gives 1:20 on 21 October as the time the boat sank. The exact times are not clear.
The families and the authorities learned about the rescue only later. On the evening of 22 October, the rescuing captain phoned the family of the sunken boat's owner. At 6:00 on 23 October, the owner of the rescuing boat told the Border Guard in Can Tho.
At 12:45 on 23 October, the CT-00787-TS arrived at the Border Guard pier in Tran De. It handed the four fishermen to the Border Guard. Local officials in Mui Ne are now helping the men to travel home.
What crews can learn
Officials have not published a full report on why the boat sank. These are general safety points for small fishing boats and for any ship that rescues people at sea:
Check the weather forecast before you leave and during the trip.
Keep life jackets and a float or life raft ready, and know how to use them.
Carry a working radio or a distress beacon. A distress beacon is a device that sends your position to rescue services.
If your ship rescues people, tell the nearest coast radio station or rescue centre as soon as you can. Then searchers can stop looking, and families know that their loved ones are safe.
Cover photo: Fishing boats at anchor in the harbour of Mui Ne, Vietnam, in February 2008. Illustrative photo, not the boats in this story. Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped).
Sources: Vietnam News Agency via Bao Tin Tuc: Four fishermen adrift after their fishing boat sank rescued and brought ashore (in Vietnamese, 23 Oct 2026), Cong an TP.HCM: Four fishermen missing after fishing boat sank off Lam Dong rescued (in Vietnamese, 24 Oct 2026), Khoa hoc va Doi song: Four crew rescued after accident near the Su Tu Trang oil rig (in Vietnamese, 23 Oct 2026).
