{"id":857,"date":"2026-09-29T11:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/vietnam-sar-takes-an-msc-hermes-iii-sailor-ashore-after-suspected-toxic-gas-exposure\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T11:36:51","slug":"vietnam-sar-takes-an-msc-hermes-iii-sailor-ashore-after-suspected-toxic-gas-exposure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/vietnam-sar-takes-an-msc-hermes-iii-sailor-ashore-after-suspected-toxic-gas-exposure\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam SAR takes an MSC Hermes III sailor ashore after suspected toxic-gas exposure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday, 29 September, that the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre had brought an unconscious sailor ashore from the Liberia-flagged containership MSC HERMES III after the seafarer was suspected of inhaling toxic gas. VietnamPlus, carrying the same VNA file at 11:04 local time, said the request for medical and rescue assistance came from MSC Vietnam Co., Ltd. on Monday, 28 September, after the sailor developed abnormal symptoms, including vomiting, then lost consciousness. His condition was assessed as very serious and life-threatening. At the time of the request the ship, IMO 9350317, was heading toward Buoy No. 0 in Vung Tau ward, Ho Chi Minh City, to carry out repair and maintenance. That Tuesday medical-evacuation file is the primary for this note. It is not a rewrite of the 22 September abandonment already circulating in casualty channels, and it is not a South China Sea security or cable-corridor story.<\/p>\n

VietnamPlus said the centre provided initial medical consultation immediately after the request, then dispatched its specialised rescue vessel SAR 272 from the Phuoc Thang ward berth at 9:15 p.m. on Monday. Two medics from the Ho Chi Minh City Border Guard joined the mission. Early on Tuesday, SAR 272 returned to the centre\u2019s berth and handed the patient to authorities for hospital transfer. Vietnam News said the same sequence, placing the return on Tuesday morning. Neither VNA dispatch named the sailor, the enclosed space involved, or a confirmed gas. Operators should treat the public record as a suspected toxic-gas exposure with loss of consciousness on a ship already in a casualty and salvage sequence, not as a completed investigation.<\/p>\n

From an unmanned derelict to a tow toward Vung Tau<\/h2>\n

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said its Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre received a distress alert from MSC HERMES III at about 08:45 Singapore time on 22 September, when the Liberia-registered containership was around 300 kilometres east of Vietnam, inside Singapore\u2019s Maritime Search and Rescue Region. MRCC Singapore broadcast a request for assistance. Three ships responded. Container News, citing MPA, said MSC RUBY recovered all 25 crew from a lifeboat after they had abandoned MSC HERMES III, with no injuries reported at that time. MRCC Singapore then coordinated with the Vietnamese MRCC on bringing the rescued seafarers ashore. MPA did not disclose the nature of the emergency that led the crew to leave the ship.<\/p>\n

Open vessel records identify MSC HERMES III as a 2006-built Liberia-flag feeder of about 2,490 TEU, 212 metres long and roughly 27,000 gross tons, MMSI 636018593, call sign D5QK6. Casualty reporting placed her on a Hong Kong to Jakarta voyage after a Shanghai call. A HYDROPAC navigational warning after the evacuation described the ship as derelict and adrift near 11\u00b045\u2032N, 112\u00b015\u2032E, about eight nautical miles northeast of the distress position, remaining in force until 25 September. Dolphin Maritime noted that containerised cargo was understood to remain on board, that fire had been suggested in some reporting without official confirmation, and that salvage and possible general average exposure would depend on later measures to preserve ship and cargo. That 22\u201323 September picture is context for Tuesday\u2019s evacuation. It is not a confirmed fire finding, and it is not evidence that the original 25-person complement was still on board six days later.<\/p>\n

By 28 September the hull was no longer an unmanned derelict in the open South China Sea. Sagar Sandesh, citing Pole Star Global AIS, reported the ship under tow toward Vung Tau by the anchor-handling tug TC MERCURY and the tug BOKA GUARD, both showing Vung Tau as destination after sailing from Vietnam. Vietnamese reporting associated the casualty with a seawater-intake failure in the engine room that left the ship unable to manoeuvre and placed BOKA GUARD, Malta-flag, on the tow toward the Vung Tau anchorage, with later repair expected at Phuoc An in Dong Nai. VNA\u2019s Tuesday file did not itself repeat that mechanical diagnosis. The operational fact that is on the record is narrower: a remanned or riding-crew ship on a repair transit toward Vung Tau required an emergency medical evacuation after a suspected toxic-gas exposure.<\/p>\n

Operational implications for salvage, cargo and enclosed-space work<\/h2>\n

An abandoned feeder still carrying boxes, then taken under tow and remanned for a coastal repair move, is a different risk set from a one-off distress and lifeboat recovery. Cargo interests face delay, possible damage to temperature-sensitive boxes, and salvage or general-average exposure until the ship is alongside and the cause is established. Nearby traffic had to treat a derelict 212-metre hull as a collision and navigation warning through at least 25 September. Once riding crew and salvors are back on board, the dominant hazard shifts from drift to enclosed-space, machinery-space and residual-atmosphere risk. A sailor who vomits and loses consciousness on a ship bound for repairs is a medical emergency first. It is also a warning that the original defect \u2014 whether seawater ingress, a machinery-space atmosphere, combustion products, or another unconfirmed source \u2014 may still be present while people work the plant.<\/p>\n

The Singapore\u2013Vietnam SAR handoff also matters for operators using the western South China Sea. Distress on 22 September sat inside Singapore\u2019s search-and-rescue region even though the ship was hundreds of kilometres east of Vietnam; the 28\u201329 September medical case was run by Vietnam\u2019s MRCC as the hull closed Vung Tau. Masters should not assume a single coastal state owns both the open-sea distress and the later salvage medical case. They should also not assume that \u201call 25 crew safe, no injuries\u201d on 22 September closes the human file. Tuesday\u2019s patient was a later person on a later evolution of the same hull.<\/p>\n

Company emergency response should therefore keep two clocks. The first is the original distress, lifeboat recovery and derelict-navigation warning, which is a traffic and cargo-preservation problem. The second is the repair-transit medical case, which is an atmosphere, enclosed-space and hospital-transfer problem in Vietnamese waters. If a general-average or salvage claim follows, surveyors will want both clocks documented: when the ship was unmanned, when riding crew or salvors boarded, what gas readings were taken, and when SAR 272 removed the patient. None of that is in the public VNA file. It still has to be built internally before memories fade and before the ship is alongside at a repair berth.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n