After nearly a day going adrift in the sea, 35 people on an oil rig near Bach Long Vi Island (Hai Phong city) was brought ashore by a helicopter.

 

The GSF Key Hawaii rig. Photo: Oht.

 At 5.35pm of October 28, the GSF Key Hawaii rig with 35 technicians (21 Vietnamese and 14 foreigners) was separated from its tugboat in the typhoon Son Tinh. Because of powerful waves and high winds, the tugboat could not access to the rig.

 On the night of October 28, three tugboats followed to protect the rig. At 4.30am of October 29, the rig was 4 nautical miles from Ha Mai Island, Haiphong. An hour later, the Ministry of Defense’s helicopter took off from Hanoi’s Gia Lam Airport to Haiphong for the rescue mission. Another helicopter carrying four Singapore experts also flew from Cat Bi Airport, Hai Phong, to the rig.

 At first, nine people (including four Singaporean experts) planned to stay on the rig to connect it to the tugboat again. However, the rig almost stopped drifting so the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) asked the National Committee for Search and Rescue to evacuate all of them by helicopter.

 All 35 people on the rig were transported to the Cat Bi airport by noon of October 29.

VNN