Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport

There were two runways – one of which did have its approach over the water and wasn’t so scary but was rarely used because the prevailing winds usually meant planes had to do the scary route.

Used to live in HK as a kid and only ever flew into Kai Tak, loved coming into it over the city but the water approach was just as interesting since you didn’t see the land until you were down. My brother used to fly light aircraft in and out of Kai Tak as a member of the HK flying club and also flew in some RAF choppers from Sek Kong and said it was bonkers with all the 747s about where you’re in a single engine cessna.

Out house used to overlook the runway from Hong Kong Island (Northpoint) and we could see the planes coming in over Kowloon – spent many hours watching them come in.

We even say a Lufthansa cargo plane go off the end of the run way and watch the army come in and dismantle it – first thing they did was cover up the tailplane to stop any bad press. 🙂

Garuda Airlines used to have a camera mounted beneath the nose of the aircraft and relay live pictures to the big screen. Always caused a few gasps. I work at the ‘new’ HK Airport, a engineering masterpiece, but lacking the character of Kai Tak.

I flew into Kai Tak in the cockpit a few times. It was common practice to dump the thrust reversers BEFORE the nose gear was down. Jeepers !

We even say a Lufthansa cargo plane go off the end of the run way and watch the army come in and dismantle it – first thing they did was cover up the tailplane to stop any bad press

Bushwacked, there was a Lufthansa cargo plane in 1983 that overshot on landing and ended up in soft ground, but was later returned to service. Then there was the China Airlines 747 that went off the end of the runway into the water in a storm in 1993. They painted out the tail markings, but a few days later the army blew the tail off anyway as it was a hazard for planes taking off! I remember seeing it semi-submerged in the harbour for a couple of months before they managed to lift it out. Wiki has the scoop – here

The last incident at the old airport was an RAF Hercules that was being used to re-patriate Vietnamese boat people before the Chinese took over. Crashed on take-off with loss of all crew.

Of course China Airlines were at it again in 1999 when they had the dubious honour to be the first to crash at the new airport just a year after it opened, when an MD-11 flipped and landed upside down!

Here you go, knew there must’ve been a picture somewhere of the first China Airlines one…

I work at the ‘new’ HK Airport, a engineering masterpiece, but lacking the character of Kai Tak.

Gate 2 needed a bit of a hoovering on Friday night, BTW.

Otherwise, it’s jolly good! 🙂

Yeah – that Lufthansa was 83 – seems like yesterday.

Well this happened at the new Cek Lap Kok airport not long after it opened…

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chek lap kok 3[/url] by wobbliscott[/url], on Flickr

Flashy, please do tell !!