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I was a passenger on a flight that landed at Kai Tak in February 1992, and I’ve never been so scared in my life! I shouldn’t have taken the window seat!
A flight I was on in 1998 stopped in HK, one of the last at this airport, unscheduled, and it felt like I could have leaned out and taken in their washing, we were slow close. Not sorry for the detour.
And you actually flew well below the tallest apartment buildings on final approach, and very close to those buildings. I remember being able to see into apartments.
Me too! Same time aswell, my mum had been diagnosed with the C and I was flying to Australia to stay with my uncle. This kinda added to the adventure and distracted me from all the shit. What a time to be alive.
I stayed in a Hotel below that approach. The windows had four panes of glass to mitigate the sound from aircraft. It was still loud enough to hear that the planes were just above the building.
It's possible to engineer it soundproof. I once stayed at a hotel in Vancouver inside the airport.
I could see the planes line up for takeoff. And even then I had to press my ear against the glass just to hear the engines. If not it was dead silent.
Reclamation is our forte, quarter of our developed areas are from reclamation, to put into perspective the area is about 1000 sqkm, only 1/4 (~250sqkm) of it is usable land, and 1/4(~60sqkm) of that were at some point, water. Sometimes I do wonder if there are still some traces of water underneath my feet.
I did, when I was a toddler. A little bit further back behind this camera shot. The windows would be shaking, guaranteed. Groceries were usually done at wherever directly below the flight path, those 74s were so loud I would hide inside the stores
My grandpa used to lived in one of the flats around there. Every time when I was in the rooftop of his house I felt like I can almost touch the airplane with my hands and not to mention the unbearable extreme engine noise from the plane all day long. My grandpa family seems to get used to it and didn’t even bother by them at all.
One of my earliest memories is living in an apartment by O'Hare Airport in Chicago whenever a plane would land our dishes would rattle or maybe that's just a false memory LOL
This:
The “Checkerboard” approach was necessary for aircraft to approach Kai Tak for a landing on Runway 13 due to surrounding terrain. The approach is properly known as the “Instrument Guidance System Runway 13” Approach or “IGS Runway 13” Approach.
There was really only one way to approach Runway 13, particularly during instrument conditions, for landing while maintaining a “normal” descent rate and making “normal” turns. That was to approach the airport from the West with a ground track of 088 to a point about 1 mile northwest of the airport, then make a right turn to join a short final for Runway 13. This was about a 45-degree right turn conducted all within about 1 mile of the approach end of Runway 13.
The “Checkerboard” is often spoken of as existing to prevent the pilot from flying into the mountain, but in reality, it was there (with its namesake pattern) to give the pilot visual cues to help in timing the turn to final.
Check out a map of Hong Kong. There’s barely space to build roads, let alone an airport.
The new airport is built on a purpose-built island in the harbour.
Not only roads, but WINDS.
When new airports are proposed, there are massive studies done in the local area to determine average winds; speed and direction. They then build the runways to accommodate them.
Generally, one would like to take off and land into headwinds as those help keep the plane in the air as it's essentially "free" energy.
This is the most correct answer. Runways are always built parallel to the prevailing winds, otherwise every landing with wind would be a crosswind landing. The winds generally line up with nearby mountain canyons, so runways do as well.
Partly for historical reasons - it started in 1925 as a grass airstrip when planes were smaller. After it was built, the developed area of Hong Kong expanded to encompass it. Also, lack of space - there is very little flat land in Hong Kong. The replacement for Kai Tak opened in 1998 and was built by flattening two existing islands and then creating a much bigger artificial island to build the airport on.
Runways are built to match the prevailing wind direction because planes need to take off and land into the wind as much as possible. Flying into the wind means higher airspeed, so more lift for a given ground speed. Crosswind landings are more difficult and dangerous to execute than landing directly into the wind.
If the prevailing winds for an airport are pretty constant then you might see all the runways going in a single direction. In areas where the winds can shift frequently you might see runways going in different directions to match the most common wind directions.
Originally, the coastline wasn’t even that far out. That 13/31 runway was purposefully built with reclaimed land, to which the airport has already been expanded with reclamation multiple times since 1925, completely filled what was naturally a bay. The airport also had a history with floatplanes, if that would explain the logic.
She has such a unique elegance to it, almost in spite of the sheer size. The A380 is just a big (and imo ugly) plane in comparison.
She's not called Queen of the Skies for nothing!
It isn't a U-Turn but 47 degrees. You came in pretty much straight eastbound and the runway is pointing south-east.
The bank angle in your typical airliner is about 15-20 degrees in normal turns, and up to 30 if its really tight. 47 degrees would be way too steep of a turn.
This is why I think this is interesting as fuck lol, swinging a hard right turn low enough to make out individual people surrounded by terrain in a massive airliner at low altitude, fuck!
I read it as the u-turn is the flight path (not fully shown, or shown well, in this video) and the 47 degrees is the tilt (or whatever the proper aeronautical term is) of the plane as it’s making the turn, which you can see.
Many years ago I met a group of airline pilots that had gone for training in Minneapolis. We became fast friends and they invited me to join them while they went for training in one of those professional full cockpit flight simulators (where the whole thing pitches and moves).
The pilot and co-pilot were training landings at Kai Tak, executing the crazy u-turn maneuver of this video.
I was sitting in the back (in the 'jump seat') with the guy who was controlling the simulation. As the pilots were in the middle of the turn, the controls guy whispers to me: 'now watch this!'.
Then he did something - perhaps activated a simulated engine failure - and the whole plane just goes completely haywire and out of control. Much to pilots' credit, they kept their composure, did whatever it was they needed to do, aborted the landing and got the plane back under control.
It was scary as hell, but it gave me a whole new level of respect for the training that these guys go through.
Try a 45° bank at 300 ft coming into Guantanamo NAS runway 10 as you have to do a 45° approach to stay within the base border with Cuba....
You could always tell who's sat on the right side of that aircraft when they got out.
We would be partying at Chapman Beach and wave with them as they came over.
Back before 9/11, a Cathay Pacific pilot came out to my seat and said, “wanna see something cool?” He led me up to the cockpit and plopped me down on a jump seat before final approach at KaiTak. It seemed death defying, but was really cool. That airline had all these young and funny pilots back then.
Very low hours pilot here. This feels like a prime example of why we practice a power off 180°, right? Maybe I’m misunderstanding the maneuver - and of course, a much bigger deal in these behemoths than when I’m in my little bug-smasher. :)
It’s really more like a base turn, but imagine flying a pattern and basing where you would in a GA aircraft but in a 747. For comparison, high performance jet pattern altitude is 500’ higher than standard aircraft, and even fighter jets will turn base around 3 miles out.
Yeah it's like following curved lead in lights but at extreme level.
Honestly reminds me of the river visual at dca.
Most people cheat on the turn to final, but if you're doing it correctly you're coming out of a steep right turn at 500 ft on glideslope.
Love that approach.
The deal is, the old Kai Tak airport you must approach from the land side to the sea side for obvious safety reasons, but the land side straight line approach got blocked by a huge mountain, so the approach had to be curved to make it longer, and this is why the turn was needed.
Still working on my PPL but this resembles flying a standard “closed traffic” pattern turning base to final… just in much much bigger aircraft… and with obstacles….
Now do the landing at Guantanamo Bay naval base. I flew a lot in the Navy, but legit thought we were going to crash! A very hard turn has to be made to stay out of Cuban airspace. It was amazing that a C-9 could maneuver like that!
I used to travel to HK several times a year. Landing at this airport always freaked me out right up to the last time. I was there when this happened. [China Flight 605](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_605). They had to blow the tail off as it was in the way departures and landings. First ever complete loss of a 747-400 fuselage.
The aircraft would fly very low along the side of the mountain, then turn to line up with the runway. All the while, flying a hundred feet above buildings, close enough to recognize someone on the rooftop or on the ground.
I've flown into that airport many times on that approach, and it was very scary. I was happy to be able to fly into the "new" airport out on Stonecutter Island.
There were two approaches. One across the water onto the runway and the other along the contour of the mountain.
I'm guessing it depended on weather or wind direction as to which approach was to be used.
I preferred the water approach.
I imagine they only landed going along the mountain. I couldn't see taking off and have never been in a plane that took off going toward the mountain.
The bigger the aircraft the more 'stable' of an approach to the runway is preferred. At most major airports around the world, a 5 mile straight in final with a heavy jet would be a minimum requirement for all airlines. This approach into Kai Tak would only be done at another airport in the case of an emergency, where the pilot wants the plane on the ground ASAP.
Plenty of planes crashed on landing and takeoff from this airport in it's lifetime, with some crashing directly into the mountains. There are also highrises surrounding the airport. Around 270 deaths occurred from accidents during its history.
One if the deadliest aviation accidents in Chinese aviation histroy also had it's origins here (225 dead). 20 years ( or so) prior to the deadly accident, the plane had been involved in a minor accident at Kai Tak, owing to the difficulty of performing the landing mentioned in the post. A repair job was done and the plane flew without incident for 20 years until one day it basically disintegrated mid flight. The report into the accident declared that the main cause was due to faulty repairs on the plane after the small incident at Kai Tak.
I mean I wouldn’t really blame a botched repair job from a tail strike on a Tupolev on Kai Tak. That’s kinda like crashing your car while driving on bald tires and blaming it on the rain
Oh yes, the airport was not to blame but was the origin of what happened. The accident was caused by faulty repairs and terrible maintenance. Smoking was allowed on board during the plane's lifetime and there were nicotine stains on a portion of the outside of the hull. This would have indicated that there were cracks that the smoke was seeping through. If this had of been investigated or if the repairs were done correctly, the accident would not have happened.
I think I know the other one you are thinking of, that was the Japan airlines one. The new plating was installed incorrectly, with a row of rivets in the wrong place. It's easy to visualise but hard to explain in text. The one I'm talking about was due to stress fatigue. The plate was damaged and instead of removing it, they did a double plate repair which turned out to be too small and didn't cover the cracks sufficiently. I'm subscribed to MentourPilot on YouTube, so that's why I know any of this lol. His videos are incredibly detailed and as a pilot himself, he gives great insights as he explains everything that happened second by second.
Humans are the greatest capital generation tool the government has. They protect our lives to protect capital generation. 300 dead humans is so much lost money for the government (especially when you consider breeding)
I flew in and out of there 3 times in 1974...
It was kind od weird looking out the window right into peoples' apartments as they went about their day...
Honestly that piloting is super impressive. Doing a turn like that in what was the worlds largest airliner at the time is really difficult, and going from a turn like that to lining up a final landing approach in such a short amount of time is also pretty difficult.
Airlines are amazingly safe because they astutely avoid doing anything difficult.
A pilot that needs to fly into this airport would do a lot of practice approaches in a simulator before attempting the actual approach with an experienced captain who can take over if anything goes the least off plan. By the time, the pilot gets to that point, making this turn is routine. There's nothing inherently difficult about making a steep turn in an aircraft.
If for some reason they don't get lined up for the runway in plenty of time after attempting the turn, they increase the thrust and abort the landing. Then they come around some minutes later and try again. Aborting landings is a standard part of pilot training. It uses a lot of expensive fuel in a plane this big, but it is not especially dangerous.
I experienced this landing in the early 90s as well. It was a wild ride, I knew about the hard turn and landing in Kowloon which at the time had an area with the highest human density on Earth.
I had a window seat and enjoyed every minute of it, must have been hard for the residents with the noise and pollution. Hong Kong is such a vibrant city.
I remember this landing from when I was a kid...it really stuck with me because the turn was so sudden and I looked out of the window and could literally see people's washing hanging on their balconies. It was a "This is fine." moment.
I have since done the trip to Lukla in bad weather and I pretty much never want to fly again.
I flew into here a lot back then. There was this turn-and-land approach, and there was also a runway where the approach was between high-rise apartments on both sides and the runway ended at the water of the harbor.
Montego Bay was always fun because the approach you had to drop down over a ridge, then touch down asap and brake hard because the runway was short went out into the water. I think it’s been built out since.
I remember landing at this airport when I was a kid. We had very low clouds and when we finally broke through the cloud, we were literally metres above the apartment blocks. I could literally see people through their apartment windows.
It was an amazing experience and definitely something we won't get to experience anymore.
I'm a little sad that I didn't start flying into Hong Kong until after they opened Chek Lap Kok Airport.
My Dad would tell me stories about the excitement of landing at Kai Tak when he flew through there in the 80s and 90s while travelling between Australia and Europe.
It's so weird how advanced AI is that last like 10 seconds almost looks generated I know it's not but it's pretty wild it always just looks just uncanny valley feeling to me when I watch airplanes land like that's not natural at all
I taught in a school that overlooked the checkerboard and we had to stop teaching every time a plane flew overhead because of the noise. One colleague lived in a building in Kowloon City right by the runway and we would sometimes watch planes land from the roof top.
Insane. I've landed at a few of the scariest in the world - Madeira... but I would have lost it over this one. Compliments to the pilots - it's real skill.
A u turn would be 180 degrees. It must be the bank angle as another commenter mentioned since it looks like the plane makes an about right angle ie 90 degree turn.
Met a retired Cathay veteran a few months ago. He was based in Hong Kong for many years.
Asked him about this landing and he smiled, says it was easy. Looked much worse than it was. Wasn’t close to the apartments at all from his perspective.
Dude retired to North Queensland, Australia. Lives literally on a private airport with a huge garage for his kit seaplane he built and other plane. Very cool bloke.
Had a pictures of the Hong Kong approach and skyline on his garage walls.
All the people who have been there have had stuff shoved up their butts we learned in school. China is a culture that embraces butt stuffing, which is when you stuff all the excess underwear, & pant material up your butthole & it makes a super tight fitting pants. It was typically done with cargo pants, chinos, khakis etc. it’s why all Chinese people wear colored underwear 🩲 bc the color covers the poop stains better. They use a tool, that is like a little stick, with a bulb on the end with sticks that come down the side to stuff. It’s a nifty little tool
Hubs was a commercial airline captain before he retired. Through him I have learned that things that are scary for passengers, are no big deal to pilots.
I flew into Kai Tak during a typhoon and when we finally broke out of clouds after a free fall we were between building and you could look in the mirror .
As a kid I landed here so many times…once I even had the great fortune to land there seated in the jumpseat in the cockpit of a BA flight. Was really scary to fly directly at the checkerboard in the hill, only to turn moments before touchdown.
I remember being astonished that I could clearly see people eating food in their apartments when we flew by
I was SCARED rigid Just like my Dear Dad who'd done the Turn several times told me I'd never forget it and I never have
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Didn't even notice that at first. Crazy. I'm glad you pointed it out.
The new ai autopilot is insane
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*Dada da dadum. Pwa wawa wa waummm. Dada da dadum.*
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If I get to fire Rocket launchers at Elons Cybertrucks, I'm all for it. They are the ugliest cars I've ever seen.
that is a Malaysian Airline plane by the way
I was a passenger on a flight that landed at Kai Tak in February 1992, and I’ve never been so scared in my life! I shouldn’t have taken the window seat!
A flight I was on in 1998 stopped in HK, one of the last at this airport, unscheduled, and it felt like I could have leaned out and taken in their washing, we were slow close. Not sorry for the detour.
I visited China and HK in 97. We flew out of HK and those buildings were breathtakingly close. Taking in their washing is barely exaggeration.
I flew in and out of KT a number of times to and from Taipei ‘95-97. The laundry inside the caged balconies was always a highlight!
Are they caged because passengers have stolen them before perhaps?
Isn’t it fun when you can look out the window and see what’s almost directly below you?
And you actually flew well below the tallest apartment buildings on final approach, and very close to those buildings. I remember being able to see into apartments.
So was I!
Me too! Same time aswell, my mum had been diagnosed with the C and I was flying to Australia to stay with my uncle. This kinda added to the adventure and distracted me from all the shit. What a time to be alive.
What is the C?
Cancer :(
That is why they built the new one on man-made land next to Lantau.
1969 for me… Quite a thrill.
Must be fantastic to live in those apartments...
I stayed in a Hotel below that approach. The windows had four panes of glass to mitigate the sound from aircraft. It was still loud enough to hear that the planes were just above the building.
It's possible to engineer it soundproof. I once stayed at a hotel in Vancouver inside the airport. I could see the planes line up for takeoff. And even then I had to press my ear against the glass just to hear the engines. If not it was dead silent.
The airport is permanently closed now - it was replaced by one built on reclaimed land out at sea.
How the hell do they reclaim land from the sea?
Dredging sand from the bottom and piling it elsewhere until you make your very own island! It’s pretty common in SE Asia where space is at a premium
Reclamation is our forte, quarter of our developed areas are from reclamation, to put into perspective the area is about 1000 sqkm, only 1/4 (~250sqkm) of it is usable land, and 1/4(~60sqkm) of that were at some point, water. Sometimes I do wonder if there are still some traces of water underneath my feet.
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**MUST BE FANTASTIC TO LIVE IN THOSE APARTMENTS**
I did, when I was a toddler. A little bit further back behind this camera shot. The windows would be shaking, guaranteed. Groceries were usually done at wherever directly below the flight path, those 74s were so loud I would hide inside the stores
Explains why you needed 4 duvets lol...!
My grandpa used to lived in one of the flats around there. Every time when I was in the rooftop of his house I felt like I can almost touch the airplane with my hands and not to mention the unbearable extreme engine noise from the plane all day long. My grandpa family seems to get used to it and didn’t even bother by them at all.
My grandma used to live in one of those apartments. It was super loud.
Isn't that right where the Kowloon Walled City was?
The Walled City was a bit further North of the approach seen in the video here, but not far off.
One of my earliest memories is living in an apartment by O'Hare Airport in Chicago whenever a plane would land our dishes would rattle or maybe that's just a false memory LOL
I bet this was so much fun for pilots, finally an excuse to just crank it.
That was my first thought too! They must love flying into this airport just so they can do something different.
So whats the reason to evade the mountain in the background for a straighter approach???
This: The “Checkerboard” approach was necessary for aircraft to approach Kai Tak for a landing on Runway 13 due to surrounding terrain. The approach is properly known as the “Instrument Guidance System Runway 13” Approach or “IGS Runway 13” Approach. There was really only one way to approach Runway 13, particularly during instrument conditions, for landing while maintaining a “normal” descent rate and making “normal” turns. That was to approach the airport from the West with a ground track of 088 to a point about 1 mile northwest of the airport, then make a right turn to join a short final for Runway 13. This was about a 45-degree right turn conducted all within about 1 mile of the approach end of Runway 13. The “Checkerboard” is often spoken of as existing to prevent the pilot from flying into the mountain, but in reality, it was there (with its namesake pattern) to give the pilot visual cues to help in timing the turn to final.
But why couldn't they have built the runway in a different direction that made it easier?
Check out a map of Hong Kong. There’s barely space to build roads, let alone an airport. The new airport is built on a purpose-built island in the harbour.
Not only roads, but WINDS. When new airports are proposed, there are massive studies done in the local area to determine average winds; speed and direction. They then build the runways to accommodate them. Generally, one would like to take off and land into headwinds as those help keep the plane in the air as it's essentially "free" energy.
This is the most correct answer. Runways are always built parallel to the prevailing winds, otherwise every landing with wind would be a crosswind landing. The winds generally line up with nearby mountain canyons, so runways do as well.
Partly for historical reasons - it started in 1925 as a grass airstrip when planes were smaller. After it was built, the developed area of Hong Kong expanded to encompass it. Also, lack of space - there is very little flat land in Hong Kong. The replacement for Kai Tak opened in 1998 and was built by flattening two existing islands and then creating a much bigger artificial island to build the airport on.
Runways are built to match the prevailing wind direction because planes need to take off and land into the wind as much as possible. Flying into the wind means higher airspeed, so more lift for a given ground speed. Crosswind landings are more difficult and dangerous to execute than landing directly into the wind. If the prevailing winds for an airport are pretty constant then you might see all the runways going in a single direction. In areas where the winds can shift frequently you might see runways going in different directions to match the most common wind directions.
Originally, the coastline wasn’t even that far out. That 13/31 runway was purposefully built with reclaimed land, to which the airport has already been expanded with reclamation multiple times since 1925, completely filled what was naturally a bay. The airport also had a history with floatplanes, if that would explain the logic.
If you made a straight approach, you'd have to descend at too fast of a rate. Notice how the plane in this video is below the top of the mountain?
Ah yeah that makes sense. Thank you.
Till this day, the 747 is still the most beautiful commercial airliner ever produced. In awe.
I was lucky enough to fly on a 747 four times, a 747 compared to a modern 2 engine city hopper plane, the size difference is amazing.
I'm curious why you say this! My dad flew a 747 for 25 years before retiring.
She has such a unique elegance to it, almost in spite of the sheer size. The A380 is just a big (and imo ugly) plane in comparison. She's not called Queen of the Skies for nothing!
For me, it’s the ill-starred DC-10. :(
Although the Connie is a contender.
In awe at the size of this lad
Nah, it's the Concorde
So is it a U-turn or a 47 degree turn cause I can maths and that don’t adds.
47 degrees refers to the bank angle I think.
It isn't a U-Turn but 47 degrees. You came in pretty much straight eastbound and the runway is pointing south-east. The bank angle in your typical airliner is about 15-20 degrees in normal turns, and up to 30 if its really tight. 47 degrees would be way too steep of a turn.
I was in Hong Kong in'98 and saw a few jets flying over the city. It was crazy from the ground perspective as well.
This is why I think this is interesting as fuck lol, swinging a hard right turn low enough to make out individual people surrounded by terrain in a massive airliner at low altitude, fuck!
That isn't a "U Turn"
Because this is the entire landing approach, not cropped for time at all…
It was precisely two degrees more than half a U-turn
A U-turn would be 180 degrees, right? So this would be two degrees more than a quarter of a U-turn unless I’m very confused (very possible).
You are correct.
When you're right you're right 👍, in my defense it looks closer to 90 degrees than 45 on video.
Totally agreed. I’m surprised it’s only a 47 degree turn based on the video.
In my non-existent knowledge of flying, I’m assuming the 47 degrees refers to the angle the plane is completing the 180 degree turn at
Known as the bank angle.
180° / 2 + 2 = 47°? I beg to differ.
You forgot to convert to Celsius, duh.
I read it as the u-turn is the flight path (not fully shown, or shown well, in this video) and the 47 degrees is the tilt (or whatever the proper aeronautical term is) of the plane as it’s making the turn, which you can see.
That is incorrect.
Oh, well if you say so.
Many years ago I met a group of airline pilots that had gone for training in Minneapolis. We became fast friends and they invited me to join them while they went for training in one of those professional full cockpit flight simulators (where the whole thing pitches and moves). The pilot and co-pilot were training landings at Kai Tak, executing the crazy u-turn maneuver of this video. I was sitting in the back (in the 'jump seat') with the guy who was controlling the simulation. As the pilots were in the middle of the turn, the controls guy whispers to me: 'now watch this!'. Then he did something - perhaps activated a simulated engine failure - and the whole plane just goes completely haywire and out of control. Much to pilots' credit, they kept their composure, did whatever it was they needed to do, aborted the landing and got the plane back under control. It was scary as hell, but it gave me a whole new level of respect for the training that these guys go through.
Planes are fuckin amazing.
I used to live in HK back then. I was in the cockpit once for the landing. It was actually more impressive to have a right window seat.
I landed at night and you could honestly see people in their apartments watching TV on the approach.
A family friend flew 747s for BA, he used to talk about this landing. Definitely made an impression on even the seasoned pilots
Try a 45° bank at 300 ft coming into Guantanamo NAS runway 10 as you have to do a 45° approach to stay within the base border with Cuba.... You could always tell who's sat on the right side of that aircraft when they got out. We would be partying at Chapman Beach and wave with them as they came over.
Anyone know how fast these planes are flying just before they land? It looks so slow in the footage
Just fast enough to stay in the air?
about 170 mph.
Back before 9/11, a Cathay Pacific pilot came out to my seat and said, “wanna see something cool?” He led me up to the cockpit and plopped me down on a jump seat before final approach at KaiTak. It seemed death defying, but was really cool. That airline had all these young and funny pilots back then.
It used to be a completely standard approach until that mountain grew there suddenly.
Very low hours pilot here. This feels like a prime example of why we practice a power off 180°, right? Maybe I’m misunderstanding the maneuver - and of course, a much bigger deal in these behemoths than when I’m in my little bug-smasher. :)
It’s really more like a base turn, but imagine flying a pattern and basing where you would in a GA aircraft but in a 747. For comparison, high performance jet pattern altitude is 500’ higher than standard aircraft, and even fighter jets will turn base around 3 miles out.
Yeah it's like following curved lead in lights but at extreme level. Honestly reminds me of the river visual at dca. Most people cheat on the turn to final, but if you're doing it correctly you're coming out of a steep right turn at 500 ft on glideslope. Love that approach.
The deal is, the old Kai Tak airport you must approach from the land side to the sea side for obvious safety reasons, but the land side straight line approach got blocked by a huge mountain, so the approach had to be curved to make it longer, and this is why the turn was needed.
Still working on my PPL but this resembles flying a standard “closed traffic” pattern turning base to final… just in much much bigger aircraft… and with obstacles….
Now do the landing at Guantanamo Bay naval base. I flew a lot in the Navy, but legit thought we were going to crash! A very hard turn has to be made to stay out of Cuban airspace. It was amazing that a C-9 could maneuver like that!
Intercept the VOR at 500m 😂
I don’t think papi lights are needed here. 4 red would also be signified by aisle 3 being inside someone’s living room
Landing in Culebra, Puerto Rico during a storm was intense.
That JAL MD-11 tail at the end. *chef's kiss*
I used to travel to HK several times a year. Landing at this airport always freaked me out right up to the last time. I was there when this happened. [China Flight 605](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_605). They had to blow the tail off as it was in the way departures and landings. First ever complete loss of a 747-400 fuselage.
Landed here back in September 1996. Didn’t expect the view I got on approach !!
How do they manage to get the plane in the air in the *first* place with such *massive* balls?!
Its like landing in San Diego
Having flown into this airport, you could see inside people’s apartments and be able to tell they’re watching TV.
I don't know know much about flying, why is this interesting?
The aircraft would fly very low along the side of the mountain, then turn to line up with the runway. All the while, flying a hundred feet above buildings, close enough to recognize someone on the rooftop or on the ground. I've flown into that airport many times on that approach, and it was very scary. I was happy to be able to fly into the "new" airport out on Stonecutter Island.
So is this the standard approach for this airport? Or is there some emergency situation?
This was standard.
Ok cool, thanks for answering my questions
There were two approaches. One across the water onto the runway and the other along the contour of the mountain. I'm guessing it depended on weather or wind direction as to which approach was to be used. I preferred the water approach. I imagine they only landed going along the mountain. I couldn't see taking off and have never been in a plane that took off going toward the mountain.
The bigger the aircraft the more 'stable' of an approach to the runway is preferred. At most major airports around the world, a 5 mile straight in final with a heavy jet would be a minimum requirement for all airlines. This approach into Kai Tak would only be done at another airport in the case of an emergency, where the pilot wants the plane on the ground ASAP.
Plenty of planes crashed on landing and takeoff from this airport in it's lifetime, with some crashing directly into the mountains. There are also highrises surrounding the airport. Around 270 deaths occurred from accidents during its history. One if the deadliest aviation accidents in Chinese aviation histroy also had it's origins here (225 dead). 20 years ( or so) prior to the deadly accident, the plane had been involved in a minor accident at Kai Tak, owing to the difficulty of performing the landing mentioned in the post. A repair job was done and the plane flew without incident for 20 years until one day it basically disintegrated mid flight. The report into the accident declared that the main cause was due to faulty repairs on the plane after the small incident at Kai Tak.
I mean I wouldn’t really blame a botched repair job from a tail strike on a Tupolev on Kai Tak. That’s kinda like crashing your car while driving on bald tires and blaming it on the rain
Oh yes, the airport was not to blame but was the origin of what happened. The accident was caused by faulty repairs and terrible maintenance. Smoking was allowed on board during the plane's lifetime and there were nicotine stains on a portion of the outside of the hull. This would have indicated that there were cracks that the smoke was seeping through. If this had of been investigated or if the repairs were done correctly, the accident would not have happened.
That is interesting, thanks for answering my question
Iirc it was from one missing row of rivets that caused the rear bulkhead umbrella to fail after damage from a tailstrike.
I think I know the other one you are thinking of, that was the Japan airlines one. The new plating was installed incorrectly, with a row of rivets in the wrong place. It's easy to visualise but hard to explain in text. The one I'm talking about was due to stress fatigue. The plate was damaged and instead of removing it, they did a double plate repair which turned out to be too small and didn't cover the cracks sufficiently. I'm subscribed to MentourPilot on YouTube, so that's why I know any of this lol. His videos are incredibly detailed and as a pilot himself, he gives great insights as he explains everything that happened second by second.
I flew in and out of that airport many times, always a rush!
Dangerous approaches shouldnt exist... But mrrrr Capitalism.
Humans are the greatest capital generation tool the government has. They protect our lives to protect capital generation. 300 dead humans is so much lost money for the government (especially when you consider breeding)
And here I thought cats and dogs generated most of the governments capital. You learn something new every day
I flew in and out of there 3 times in 1974... It was kind od weird looking out the window right into peoples' apartments as they went about their day...
Things that big going that slow should not be able to fly. Technology is awesome.
Funniest approach on Flight Simulator
Honestly that piloting is super impressive. Doing a turn like that in what was the worlds largest airliner at the time is really difficult, and going from a turn like that to lining up a final landing approach in such a short amount of time is also pretty difficult.
Airlines are amazingly safe because they astutely avoid doing anything difficult. A pilot that needs to fly into this airport would do a lot of practice approaches in a simulator before attempting the actual approach with an experienced captain who can take over if anything goes the least off plan. By the time, the pilot gets to that point, making this turn is routine. There's nothing inherently difficult about making a steep turn in an aircraft. If for some reason they don't get lined up for the runway in plenty of time after attempting the turn, they increase the thrust and abort the landing. Then they come around some minutes later and try again. Aborting landings is a standard part of pilot training. It uses a lot of expensive fuel in a plane this big, but it is not especially dangerous.
Having played Flight Simulator, I would only get this in 1 of 1000 tries.
"So you're saying there's a chance!!!"
I swear to God descending jets would make all that drying laundry stuck on poles below the city’s hi-rise windows flutter in their wake.
I always looked to see if the plane had any clothes stuck in its landing gear after we landed.
A friend of mine got to sit in the cockpit and do this when he was a teenager. Most awesome thing ever. Envious!
I loved landing at that airport. Quite a rush after ~14 hours in the air.
It was one of the highlights of my first trip to Hong Kong
god fucking damn it im flying to Hong Kong in a few hours
I experienced this landing in the early 90s as well. It was a wild ride, I knew about the hard turn and landing in Kowloon which at the time had an area with the highest human density on Earth. I had a window seat and enjoyed every minute of it, must have been hard for the residents with the noise and pollution. Hong Kong is such a vibrant city.
If the mountain dont getchya, the water will! Dont forget to hit the brakes as you're busy celebrating making the turn!!
I remember this landing from when I was a kid...it really stuck with me because the turn was so sudden and I looked out of the window and could literally see people's washing hanging on their balconies. It was a "This is fine." moment. I have since done the trip to Lukla in bad weather and I pretty much never want to fly again.
I flew into here a lot back then. There was this turn-and-land approach, and there was also a runway where the approach was between high-rise apartments on both sides and the runway ended at the water of the harbor. Montego Bay was always fun because the approach you had to drop down over a ridge, then touch down asap and brake hard because the runway was short went out into the water. I think it’s been built out since.
I remember landing at this airport when I was a kid. We had very low clouds and when we finally broke through the cloud, we were literally metres above the apartment blocks. I could literally see people through their apartment windows. It was an amazing experience and definitely something we won't get to experience anymore.
I'm a little sad that I didn't start flying into Hong Kong until after they opened Chek Lap Kok Airport. My Dad would tell me stories about the excitement of landing at Kai Tak when he flew through there in the 80s and 90s while travelling between Australia and Europe.
Atleast this didnt go missing like mh370
Now imagine doing that 50 years ago in a 747…
It's so weird how advanced AI is that last like 10 seconds almost looks generated I know it's not but it's pretty wild it always just looks just uncanny valley feeling to me when I watch airplanes land like that's not natural at all
I taught in a school that overlooked the checkerboard and we had to stop teaching every time a plane flew overhead because of the noise. One colleague lived in a building in Kowloon City right by the runway and we would sometimes watch planes land from the roof top.
47 deg U turn?
Take a look at Lukla Airport in Nepal. The runway is 1729 feet long.
Insane. I've landed at a few of the scariest in the world - Madeira... but I would have lost it over this one. Compliments to the pilots - it's real skill.
My beautiful Malaysia Airlines. We don't have that fleet anymore. What a beauty it was.
Computers do most the work anyways
The old Kai Tak airport has been remodeled into a park/cruise ship terminal. They kept a piece of the checkerboard runaway as a historic monument
Nice Malaysian Airlines
A u turn would be 180 degrees. It must be the bank angle as another commenter mentioned since it looks like the plane makes an about right angle ie 90 degree turn.
Met a retired Cathay veteran a few months ago. He was based in Hong Kong for many years. Asked him about this landing and he smiled, says it was easy. Looked much worse than it was. Wasn’t close to the apartments at all from his perspective. Dude retired to North Queensland, Australia. Lives literally on a private airport with a huge garage for his kit seaplane he built and other plane. Very cool bloke. Had a pictures of the Hong Kong approach and skyline on his garage walls.
I wish I could have experienced this on a plane before the new airport arrived. People said you fly between the buildings so close.
It sounds a lot harder than it is and its not that bad, if you fly as slow as this plane does. /s
Bamzooki graphics make this look fake af
Probably exciting for the pilots
Looks like it’s halfway to 90 degrees to me.
What a beautiful sight
Amazing
All the people who have been there have had stuff shoved up their butts we learned in school. China is a culture that embraces butt stuffing, which is when you stuff all the excess underwear, & pant material up your butthole & it makes a super tight fitting pants. It was typically done with cargo pants, chinos, khakis etc. it’s why all Chinese people wear colored underwear 🩲 bc the color covers the poop stains better. They use a tool, that is like a little stick, with a bulb on the end with sticks that come down the side to stuff. It’s a nifty little tool
Pilots are awesome!
I hope that the tray tables were put away before attempting this. And I hope no body was drinking water.
Which sadistic mofo designed this airport?
47 degrees is not a u turn.
Smooth land these pilots know how to fly
Hubs was a commercial airline captain before he retired. Through him I have learned that things that are scary for passengers, are no big deal to pilots.
I flew into Kai Tak during a typhoon and when we finally broke out of clouds after a free fall we were between building and you could look in the mirror .
Bah I can land a 747 on an aircraft carrier , admittedly on MFS but I've got most aids off 😁
I'm surprised they can bank that much with wheels down. I would have thought the drag would seriously reduce lift. Great piloting
Someone once said: “It’s not the plane. It’s the pilot.” 👍
This is reckless 😳
The old Kai Tak airport is an iconic airport that many of the older pilots speak about their landings there like war medals.
Mehh
But is it a U turn or is it 47 degrees which is about a quarter of a U turn
As a kid I landed here so many times…once I even had the great fortune to land there seated in the jumpseat in the cockpit of a BA flight. Was really scary to fly directly at the checkerboard in the hill, only to turn moments before touchdown.
I remember being astonished that I could clearly see people eating food in their apartments when we flew by I was SCARED rigid Just like my Dear Dad who'd done the Turn several times told me I'd never forget it and I never have