Vietnam police blame human error in boat sinking

The Associated Press - 

Vietnamese police said Sunday that human error was to blame for the sinking of a tour boat in Ha Long Bay that killed 12 sleeping passengers. The vessel's captain and a crew member have been arrested.

A valve that allows water to come into the boat to cool the engine was left open while the vessel was anchored for the night, Quang Ninh provincial police spokesman Le Thanh Binh said. The engine was turned off, preventing a pump from running to push the water out, he said.

Eleven foreign tourists from nine countries were among those who drowned when the boat went down in the scenic bay last week.

"The initial police investigation showed that the man in charge of the boat engine forgot to close the valve that allowed water in to cool the engine before he, the captain and other crew went to bed," Binh told The Associated Press by telephone. "When they found out about that, it was too late."

However, Pham Xuan Viet, a veteran captain who runs a similar boat in Ha Long Bay, said the cause may be more complicated because leaving the cooling valve open should not by itself fill a boat with water and sink it.

The tour boat was inundated with gushing water when it went down about 5 a.m. Thursday, trapping passengers in their overnight cabins. All of the Vietnamese crew survived, along with nine foreign tourists. But 11 vacationers from the U.S., Britain, Australia, Japan, Russia, France, Sweden and Switzerland drowned along with their Vietnamese tour guide.

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