Hong Kong airport runway incident under investigation by Civil Aviation Department
- Cargo jet forced into ‘missed approach’ because a commercial airliner was still taking off
- Aviation authority promises thorough probe into incident but says airport operations were unaffected
The aviation authority is investigating a runway incident at Hong Kong International Airport where a cargo jet had to pull back from landing to avoid a potential collision with a commercial airliner with no passengers that was still taking off.
Flight came within 570 metres of Hong Kong hill, investigating authorities reveal
According to the department’s initial findings, a Federal Express MD11 freighter FX9741 travelling from Anchorage to the city approached the South Runway (25L) at about 6.15pm on Friday, when a Hong Kong Airlines A330 airliner HX765 flying to Bangkok with no passengers on board was on its take-off run.
Before landing, the freighter crew noticed the aircraft ahead had not fully left the runway and executed a so-called missed approach to stop the landing.
The passenger jet took off as planned and the freighter landed “uneventfully” from another approach.
“The CAD attaches great importance to the runway incident and is sparing no effort to investigate it,” the department said, adding it had reported the incident to the Air Accident Investigation Authority in accordance with the established mechanism.
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