A
fl ight into Kai Tak was something
we never undertook lightly –
although all of our work demanded
absolute professionalism, of course.
Sometimes we were rostered for the milk
run across Southeast Asia, fl ying out and
back the same day. We also had a daily
service to the US West Coast that stopped
off in Hong Kong in both directions to
refuel, pick up and drop off passengers,
and change crew. Irrespective of the trip,
Kai Tak always required extra time in the
briefi ng room, careful planning, and great
diligence on the fl ight deck as we made
our fi nal approach.Planning
Even before we got near the aeroplane,
there were issues to address. The
Jepps [Jeppesen manuals] had morepages for Kai Tak than any other airport
we fl ew to. Some of the most obvious
considerations related to marginal
and poor weather, not infrequent
occurrences in the region. We studied
the met data very closely, considered
the options, and made sure we were
totally familiar with the numbers. But
we had more to think about than just
the 675ft decision height and the need
to be visual with the runway before we
started to make the famous turn. There
was also the possibility of a diversion,
which could have involved continuing to
Taipei, one and a half hours’ away. Hong
Kong was still under British rule and the
political situation, limited infrastructure,
and immigration regulations meant
we usually excluded alternates on
the Chinese mainland. The last thingwe wanted was 400 disgruntled
passengers and crew si ing on the
aircraft, unable to enter China because
they hadn’t got a visa. At that time, the
English spoken by Chinese ATC wasn’t
great either and we certainly didn’t
understand the Mandarin used by most
local pilots. The situation eased when
Macau Airport opened in November
1995, and after Britain handed Hong
Kong back to China in November 1997
Guangzhou and Shenzhen airports
came into play too.
A 90-minutes diversion to Taiwan might
not have been much of an issue after a
four-hour fl ight over the South China
Sea, but fuel planning became more
important if we were going to make an
approach after a 15-hour sector from
San Francisco. In the middle of theChina Airlines
Boeing 747-409
B-161 passes the
checkerboard while
making the turn
from the instrument
guidance system
approach onto
short fi nal.
(AirTeamImages.
com / Andrew Hunt)HONG KONG KAI TAK
Extreme Airports // 4342-49_Kai Tak.indd 43 11/05/2018 12:28