A machinist has been arrested for allegedly driving a tender that collided with another tourist boat in Ha Long Bay without a license. The incident killed five Taiwanese nationals last week, police sources have said.

Police in the northern province of Quang Ninh Tuesday announced that Luu Quang Tam, vice machinist of the Paradise Cruises tourism boat, has been charged with violating water traffic regulations and remained in custody pending further investigations.

36-year-old Mac Van Duong, vice-captain of Paradise Cruises, had been previously arrested in connection with the deadly boat crash, the police said.

Duong told investigators that he appointed Tam to drive the tender with 18 Taiwanese on board at the time of the accident. As a result police charged him with “appointing unqualified drivers to control boat”.

Reports said the tender collided with the Dong Phong 02 tourism boat at about 3:30pm on Oct. 3 when it was carrying the visitors back from a visit to Sung Sot cave in the bay.

65-year-old Chen Tseng Yun Yu, one of the survivors, told a local newswire that they traveled to the cave aboard a larger ship but were taken back on the tender because the traffic was so chaotic at the pier then.

Two survivors said the tender had been hit twice by the tourist boat before it was totally wrecked.

Last February, twelve people from 9 nations died when their tour boat Truong Hai 06 suddenly sank while they were sleeping in the picturesque bay.

Halong Bay, located about 100 miles east of the capital Hanoi in the Gulf of Tonkin, has been a UNESCO Heritage Site since 1994 and is world-renowned for its 1,600 island and islets as well as its towering limestone pillars.