Japanese boy's drowning at Vietnam 5-star resort avoidable with proper pool outlets, inspectors find

A Vietnamese company's director has been accused of designing unsafe pool suction outlets that led to an 11-year-old Japanese boy's death at the five-star Centara Mirage Resort Mui Ne in 2022. Police in Lam Dong Province have concluded their investigation and sent the case file to the provincial People's Procuracy, recommending that Nguyen Quoc Quan, 65-year-old director of Quoc Khang Company, be prosecuted for violating construction regulations causing serious consequences.The case was last reopened in late June. In more than four years, it has been suspended and reopened several times, and the offense under investigation has been changed.According to the investigation conclusion, Quan personally drew up the technical design for the resort's pool system.The company initially proposed using suction outlet covers made by Hayward. Because the covers did not fit the pipes already installed, the parties involved agreed to use square plastic grates instead.Investigators found that Quan, who was not familiar with the safety standards for pool suction and discharge systems, suggested modifying the grate design by adding one cell vertically and two horizontally.Quoc Khang then made a prototype, test-fitted it and mass-produced the grates for use in the pool.A judicial assessment by CDMI, a construction inspection center under the Ministry of Construction, and a document it issued on Sept. 29 found that the suction and discharge outlets were not built to the technical requirements for preventing suction entrapment.The system was also not tested for entrapment before being put into use, as required by the standards cited in its design documents.The assessors found this violation to be the direct and main reason the boy was sucked against the outlet and pinned there, and then drowned. According to CDMI, the death would not have occurred had the outlets been built to the technical requirements.Investigators also found that Quoc Khang directly designed the pool's technical schematic despite lacking the qualifications required by regulations.For individuals at the developer, the project management board, the supervision consultant and the main contractor, the investigation conclusion found there were not yet grounds to pursue criminal liability.The incident happened on the morning of April 5, 2022, when Hanawa Yukiji, a Japanese national, was on holiday with his family at the resort in Mui Ne, then part of Binh Thuan Province and now of Lam Dong.He went into the resort's Lazy River pool. While swimming, he was sucked against and pinned to an outlet of the pool's underwater massage pump system.Relatives and resort staff got him out, gave him first aid and took him to a medical facility, but he did not survive. A forensic examination found that he died of drowning.