Nine military personnel on a CASA 212 turboprop plane are still missing since the aircraft went down last Thursday in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Deputy Prime Minister and head of the National Committee for Search and Rescue Trinh Dinh Dung yesterday called for an intensive search operation in the coastal provinces from Quang Ninh to Ha Tinh to search for the missing personnel.

The CASA-212-40 with nine people on board went missing on June 16 during a search operation for a Su-30MK2, which crashed offshore the central province of Nghe An last Tuesday. One of the two pilots on board, Major Nguyen Huu Cuong, was rescued, but the other, Lieutenant Colonel Tran Quang Khai, 43, was found dead at sea last Friday and was brought ashore.

Search and rescue teams found debris belonging to the CASA-212 plane, which crashed on June 16 during a search operation for missing Su-30 fighter pilot Khai. The debris of the plane was found to the southwest of Bach Long Vi Island near the delimitation line in the Tonkin Gulf.

China sent one rescue and two coastguard boats to help search for the CASA plane in response to Vietnam’s request for assistance. It also allowed Vietnamese vessels to enter the Chinese side of the maritime boundary agreed to between the two countries.

Deputy PM Dung called on fishing boats and local authorities in the coastal provinces to cooperate with the search and rescue teams to find the missing aircraft and the pilots as soon as possible.

They were also told to report any signals or objects suspected to be related to the missing aircraft and pilots.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc earlier offered condolences to the relatives of the officers and soldiers involved in the two separate incidents of the fighter jet Su 30MK2 and the search aircraft CASA-212. He urged the deployment of all forces to search for the missing people.

Besides search and rescue teams from the National Defense Ministry and the localities, the Ministry of Public Security has also joined the search operation. The police have been told to get ready to assist other forces. Two contact numbers – 0692320160 and 0692320136 – are being used to receive and respond to any call for assistance from the military forces.

The deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung attended a ceremony this morning to commemorate Colonel Tran Quang Khai at Military Hospital No. 4 in central Nghe An Province’s Vinh City. Other leaders, including President Tran Dai Quang, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent wreaths and offered condolences to Khai’s family.

Khai’s body was carried from Vinh City to his hometown in northern Bac Giang Province’s Lang Giang District where his funeral will be organised tomorrow.

The Ministry of Defence has posthumously promoted Lieutenant Colonel Tran Quang Khai to Colonel to recognise his contribution and sacrifice for the military and the nation.

Hanoi People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung today asked the city’s Department of Education and Training to employ Khai’s wife as a teacher at Chu Van An High School. The couple got married three years ago and their daughter is now around two years old. They had rented a house in Hanoi while Khai worked in central Thanh Hóa Province.

VNS