The Military news agency said that Bell-505 aircraft, number VN-8650 of Northern Helicopter Company of Vietnam Helicopter Corporation (Brigade 18), piloted by Colonel Chu Quang Minh, carried 4 Vietnamese tourists to perform sightseeing tours of Ha Long Bay from above, took off at 4:56 pm on April 5, and lost contact 19 minutes later, at 17:15.

Read more: Tourist helicopter crashes in Halong Bay
When the plane lost signal, the Northern Helicopter Company urgently coordinated with the Border Guard and local military forces to search and rescue.
 At 19:18 on April 5, the force at the scene reported that they had recovered two bodies and some debris suspected to be from the plane at the shoreline, coordinates 20051'51.2"N-107001'13.4" E.
Read more: Breaking: Two people killed after helicopter crashed in Vietnam, three others went missing
Breaking: Two people killed after helicopter crashed in Vietnam, three others went missing
At 9:45 am on April 6, May, four victims were found.
Detail in: Fourth body found in Quang Ninh tourist helicopter crash
At 8 am on April 7, the last victim was found a few hundred meters from where the plane crashed. Thus, up to now, all five victims in the accident have been found , and all have died.
Currently, the functional forces are salvaging the helicopter wreckage to bring back to the shore for investigation work. The Ministry of Defense will undertake the entire process.
Quang Ninh province mobilized the total force of search and rescue forces at one time up to about 600 people, in addition to the active participation of fishermen operating in the Cat Ba archipelago area.

Bell 505 helicopter has its airport on Tuan Chau Island, Ha Long City, Quang Ninh province, specializing in serving scenic flights to Ha Long.
Ho Minh Tan, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said that Bell-505 is an American single-engine light helicopter designed and manufactured by Bell Helicopter. The aircraft was certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of America, Canada, and Europe and recognized by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam in 2018.
Each Bell 505 can carry five people, including a pilot and four passengers, with a maximum flight speed of 232 km/h; the Maximum flight altitude is more than 5,600 m. Bell 505 has a length of 10.53 m, a width of 1.52 m and a height of 3.25 m, added to the fleet of aircraft serving the Ha Long (Quang Ninh) helicopter tour in 2019.
According to a report by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, the Northern Helicopter Company is operating two Bell-505 aircraft with registration numbers VN-8650 and VN-8651. For the one in accident (VN-8650), the total flight time until the crash was 488 hours, with 2,655 takeoffs/landings.

Periodic maintenance of aircraft is implemented fully according to the approved contents. Until the plane crashed, Northern Helicopter Company provided 682 hours of tourist flights with both aircraft with over 7,000 passengers.
As for the pilot making the flight, Mr. Tan said he has a commercial pilot license, valid until June 2026.
At the time of the accident, the weather, meteorology, visibility, temperature and the barometric pressure were totally suitable for visual flying conditions.
"Due to the payload of less than 5,700kg, the Bell-505 aircraft does not have to carry a flight parameter device. However, it has Vision 1000 with the function of recording images in the cockpit and the ability to This is a device capable of supporting the investigation of the cause of the accident, "said Mr. Tan.
Immediately after the incident, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam received a letter from the manufacturer Bell and the Canadian Transport Safety Committee requesting assistance and sending a representative to join in the investigation for the cause of the accident.