15 Indians Killed After Speedboat Capsizes Off Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island; Captain Arrested

The bodies of 15 Indian tourists who died after a speedboat capsized off Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island are being flown back to India on Monday.

The victims’ bodies were taken to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City after local authorities and Indian diplomatic officials completed identification and other required formalities.

According to the Indian Embassy in Hanoi, the bodies are being repatriated on Vietnam Airlines flight VN979, which is scheduled to depart Ho Chi Minh City at 6 p.m. local time and arrive at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 9:35 p.m. IST.

The embassy said the concerned state governments have been informed and asked to coordinate with the victims’ families for transporting the bodies to their hometowns.

The accident happened on Saturday, July 11, near Hon May Rut Ngoai Island off Phu Quoc in southern Vietnam.

The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists, three Vietnamese crew members and a tour guide when it overturned shortly after leaving the island for another nearby destination.

Authorities said the boat had travelled only about 300 to 400 metres before it capsized, throwing passengers into the water.

Nearby tourist boats and local rescue teams pulled 21 people from the sea, but 15 Indian tourists lost their lives after becoming trapped inside the overturned boat.

The tourists were part of a 108-member incentive trip sponsored by Indian smartphone maker Lava Mobiles for its distributors, channel partners and employees. Among those who died, 14 were channel partners and one was a company employee.

The victims included 10 people from Tamil Nadu, three from Andhra Pradesh and two from Kerala.

#WATCH | Hyderabad: Speaking about the incident that happened, one of the survivors, Rameshwar Pradhan says, “We actually went on behalf of the company. We took the distributor along with us. We were about 105 people. We actually went to an island there in Vietnam… When we were… https://t.co/ECc3rgr9wC pic.twitter.com/Fduk9nWnUv

— ANI (@ANI) July 12, 2026

The group had arrived in Vietnam on July 9 and was scheduled to return to India on Sunday. According to survivors, the tourists had been divided among three boats for travel between islands, with the other two boats still near Hon May Rut Ngoai Island when the accident took place.

Survivor Ashish Kumar, a 48-year-old distributor from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, told PTI that the boat had travelled only about 300 to 400 metres from the island before it overturned at around 1:30 p.m. local time, leaving passengers with little time to react as they were taking photographs.

“The boat had hardly left the island. We were all screaming for help,” he said, adding that although there was some wind, the weather did not appear unusually bad.

After the accident, the Indian Embassy in Hanoi and the Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City set up 24-hour emergency control rooms to assist the victims’ families and coordinate with Vietnamese authorities.

The embassy also thanked the local authorities for helping with the recovery, identification and repatriation process.

Sixteen survivors have already been discharged from hospital and are on their way back to India. One injured tourist remains in stable condition and is still under observation at a hospital in Phu Quoc.

Vietnamese authorities have detained the speedboat captain as part of the investigation.

Officials are examining whether the boat was carrying more passengers than allowed, whether passengers were properly provided with and using life jackets, and why the vessel was allowed to operate despite monsoon weather warnings in the Gulf of Thailand.

References: Indian Express, Livemint