Tourists airlifted out of flooded Lao Cai

August 13, 2008 in Uncategorized
Tags: Add new tag, airlifted, Cai, flooded, Lao, of, out, Tourists

LAO CAI — More than 200 people, most of them foreign tourists, have escaped flash flood-stricken Lao Cai Province by helicopter, said an official from an air taxi service company.

Pham Thi Nga of the Ha Noi-based Northern Air Service Co. said the company had dispatched 15 flights from the stadium in Lao Cao Province to Ha Noi’s Gia Lam Airport over the last two days.

Nga, head of the carrier’s Commercial Department, said ten flights, each carrying 14 passengers, took off on Monday, with five more added on Tuesday.

Operating at the behest of local tour operators and embassies in Viet Nam, the flights rescued more than 200 people, most of them foreign tourists, said Nga.

She added additional flights would leave on Wednesday after railway link between Lao Cai and Ha Noi was re-established.

According to provincial tourism authorities, 200 Vietnamese and 300 foreign tourists have been stranded in Sa Pa since August 8.

Tour operators, including Saigontourist, Ben Thanh Tourist and Asian Trails, reported having customers still stuck there on Tuesday.

HCM City-based tour operator Asian Trails sent two chartered flights operated by Northern Air Service Co. to airlift 30 foreigners from Sa Pa to Ha Noi on Monday.

“Chartering a helicopter was the best way since train and road transport couldn’t resume in a few days,” Bui Viet Thuy Tien, Asian Trails’ director, told Viet Nam News on Tuesday.

Tien said all the company’s 33 guests and employees there have been brought back safely to Ha Noi, with no injuries reported.

However, the unexpectedly long sojourn in Sa Pa means they missed out on some of the planned activities in their packaged tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia.

Each passenger was charged US$800 for the airlift, but will get a refund from insurance companies when they return home.

Twenty French tourists on a Saigontourist Travel Service tour to Sa Pa were airlifted to Ha Noi on Tuesday afternoon , said company director Vo Anh Tai. —