Two people have been killed and three are missing after a Bell 505 helicopter crashed near Vietnam’s Halong Bay. The aircraft was carrying one pilot and four Vietnamese tourists, and lost contact just five minutes after taking off for a flight over the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Despite maintaining a strong safety record, Vietnam has experienced a number of accidents involving military aircraft. The tourists, many of whom are from China, fly with the Northern Vietnam Helicopter Company, which began flying tourists over Halong Bay in 2019, and no accidents have been reported since. The Bell 505, designed and manufactured by US company Bell Helicopter, is a light helicopter. In January, a pilot was killed after a Russian-made Sukhoi SU-22 military fighter jet crashed in northern Vietnam during a training session. In 2014, 19 people died when a Russian-made Mi-171 helicopter crashed in the capital Hanoi during a training exercise.