The director of Truong Hai Co., which owns the boat that went down in the picturesque bay, the vessel’s captain and five crew members were detained for questioning, said Quang Ninh province police spokesman Le Thanh Binh.
The local port authority allowed overnight cruises to resume operations after docking all boats following the sinking before dawn Thursday that claimed the lives of 11 foreign vacationers and their Vietnamese tour guide.
It was Vietnam’s deadliest tour boat accident since the country opened up to foreign visitors 25 years ago.
Vu Van Thin, chief administrator of Quang Ninh, said the government would offer $1,000 to each of the foreign victims’ families and $500 apiece to the nine survivors.
The tour boat company could not be reached for comment, and it’s unclear whether additional compensation will be provided from an insurance company.
The bodies of the foreign victims — from the US , Britain, Australia, Japan, Russia, France, Sweden and Switzerland — remain at hospitals in Ha Long Bay as families work to get them repatriated.
“Samantha was every parent’s dream,” said Edward Taylor, father of American victim Samantha Kay Taylor, 22. “She was such a sweet child. She had everything going for her. Everyone says this, but with my Samantha, this was so true: She was God’s gift.”
The boat, “Dream Voyage,” was hoisted partially out of the water Friday and dragged to a nearby island, where crews were trying to pump enough water out of it to tow it back to shore. Investigators will then work to determine why it suddenly sank.
Survivors reported seeing a wooden plank break away from the boat just before it was rapidly inundated with gushing water and pulled down while anchored for the night, but the cause of the sinking remains unclear. The seas and weather were calm at the time of the incident.
Survivors leaped from the sinking boat’s deck and were rescued by other nearby tour boats in the popular bay that’s a must-see for most travelers visiting northern Vietnam. About 2.5 million people cruise Ha Long Bay each year, half of them foreigners, to experience the dramatic 1,600 jagged limestone formations that jut out of the sea, forming tiny islands in the Gulf of Tonkin near the Chinese border.
Day cruises are offered, but many tourists opt to sleep on traditional wooden boats equipped with cabins, ranging from budget to luxury accommodation.
The “Dream Voyage” passed its annual inspection four months ago and had been operating in the bay for only three years, according to a government transport newspaper.
The local port authority allowed overnight cruises to resume operations Saturday after temporarily docking all boats following the incident. The government has set up a special inspection team to check the more than 500 tour boats plying the bay, and will focus on the 164 overnight vessels first.
