If a runway change occurred due to wind change from runway 13 departures to runway 31 departures, planes that were loaded to maximum payload for runway 13 departures had to return to the terminal to offload some goods to provide enough climbing clearance over buildings during a runway 31 departure. These cookies also allow for the viewing of embedded content, such as videos. Far from population centers, approaches could be mostly over water, and land for expansion was ample. The path towards the runway passed within 300 metres (980ft) to the north of Heng Fa Chuen on Hong Kong Island. This made the approach unusable in low visibility conditions. The data includes the number of visits, average duration of the visit on the website, pages visited, etc. The cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. [17] This extension was completed in June 1974, but the full length of the runway was not in use until 31 December 1975, as construction of the new Airport Tunnel had kept the northwestern end of the runway closed.[18]. The runway that gave Kai Tak its identity the one described at the outset was built in 1958, the same year that Kai Tak was officially designated Hong Kong International Airport. The completion date of January 1998 was moved up a year in order to precede the retrocession of Hong Kong to the Peoples Republic in 1997, but that goal was not met. This cookie is set by linkedIn. Ultimately, existence as a small promontory surrounded by political and physical pressures doomed Kai Tak. [64][65] Two public housing estates opened on the northeast area of the site in 2013, providing over 13,000 new rental flats. 16 were killed. The cookie is used in conjunction with _omappvs cookie to determine whether a user is new or returning. [38] The club ended its helicopter activities at Kai Tak on 9 July 2017. The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. It helps us understand the number of visitors, where the visitors are coming from, and the pages they navigate. Upon reaching the small hill above Kowloon Tsai Park, which was painted with a large "aviation orange" and white checkerboard (222006N 1141104E / 22.33500N 114.18444E / 22.33500; 114.18444 (Checkerboard Hill)), used as a visual reference point on the final approach (in addition to the middle marker on the Instrument Guidance System), the pilot needed to make a 47 visual right turn to line up with the runway and complete the final leg. In 1942, the Japanese army expanded Kai Tak, using many Allied prisoner-of-war (POW) labourers,[10] building two concrete runways, 13/31 and 07/25. Runway 31 approaches and landings were similar to other airports in which ILS was available. The Planning Department unveiled a major reworking of its plans for the old Kai Tak airport site on 17 October 2006, containing "a basket of small measures designed to answer a bevy of concerns raised by the public". A new plan for the redevelopment of Kai Tak was issued by the government in June 2006. [17], The growth of Hong Kong also put a strain on the airport's capacity. A puff of smoke from the tires and the plane was on the ground. There were eight boarding gates attached to the terminal building.[34]. The pilot needed to slow down quickly to avoid the mountains, but to stay in the air it needed to maintain its speed. For a time. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Approaching aircraft then had to make a right-hand U-turn in order to intercept the localiser for the Runway 13 IGS, which generally happened above the current Chek Lap Kok Airport site. [9] Soon, it became a small grass strip runway airport used by the RAF, and by several flying clubs which, over time grew to include the Hong Kong Flying Club, the Far East Flying Training School, and the Aero Club of Hong Kong; these exist today as an amalgamation known as the Hong Kong Aviation Club. That demanding manoeuvre became known in the aviation community as the "Hong Kong Turn" or the "Checkerboard Turn". On 9 April 1951, a Siamese Airways Douglas DC-3 lost control on its turn while attempting a night-time visual approach. When lined up for takeoff on runway 31, a range of hills including 1,500 feet (460m) Beacon Hill would be right in front of the aircraft. The exception was the new airport's main air cargo terminal built and operated by HACTL as a franchisee. [21] As of 2020 the hotel still exists, but the footbridge (which was connected to the passenger terminal) has been demolished. A freight terminal was located on the south side of the east apron and diagonally from the passenger terminal building. This feature is for paid subscribers only. James Carter is Professor of History and part of the Nealis Program in Asian Studies at Saint Josephs University in Philadelphia. Handling the runway 13 approach was difficult enough with normal crosswinds because, even if the wind direction was constant, it was changing relative to the aircraft as the plane made the 47 visual right turn, meaning that what would be a headwind heading directly east on the IGS would become a crosswind and begin to push the aircraft over and off the runway alignment without correction. 
[8], In 1924, Harry Abbott opened the Abbott School of Aviation on that piece of land. A new Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station, Kai Tak, opened on the former airport land in early 2020. The cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising. Other features of the plan included two cruise terminals and a large stadium. It was headed straight for the mountains at nearly 300 miles per hour. This cookie is used to store the language preferences of a user to serve up content in that stored language the next time user visit the website. This cookie is set by twitter.com. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Under the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance, no harbour reclamation can take place unless the Government can demonstrate to the courts an "overriding public need".[62]. Advertisement cookies help us provide our visitors with the most relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Kai Tak Airport closed on July 6, 1998. The first passenger terminal was built in 1962. The new airport opened officially the next day although it had already welcomed a handful of official planes, including Air Force One carrying U.S. President Bill Clinton several days earlier.
An Instrument Guidance System (IGS) was installed in 1974 to aid landing on runway 13. All of the essential airport supplies and vehicles that were left in the old airport for operation (some of the non-essential ones had already been transported to the new airport) were transported to Chek Lap Kok in one early morning with a single massive move, with a police escort. Just after midnight, a Cathay Pacific 747 bound for London was the final scheduled departure. This cookie is set by Youtube. [39] The Kai Tak location, which it was able to use all days of the week, meant that helicopter training took less time compared to fixed-wing training, as usage at Shek Kong is restricted to weekends.[40]. After that, the aircraft was required to proceed up to "Point Golf", which was on the south side of Lantau Island and directly south of the current Chek Lap Kok Airport. When their plan to build housing on reclaimed land off of Kowloon failed in 1912, the site was identified as suitable for an airfield just as aviation was developing as a technology. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. The aircraft had to make a sharp 65-degree left turn soon after takeoff to avoid the hills (i.e. This web site uses cookies to deliver a modern, enjoyable web site experience. Due to the limited space, the fuel tank farm was located between the passenger terminal and HAECO maintenance facilities (hangar). A small park and new hospital (Hong Kong Children's Hospital) have also opened. (Technically, this approach was to runway 13, as it would be designated when approaching from this direction, with the designation 31 referring to approaches from the runways opposite end, if the wind direction called for it.) The captain allegedly allowed the aircraft to lose speed while attempting to turn quickly. Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. The disruption this caused to air cargo operations at the new airport led the government to temporarily reactivate for a month Kai Tak's cargo terminal. "[6], The story of Kai Tak started in 1912 when two businessmen, Ho Kai and Au Tak, formed the Kai Tak Investment Company to reclaim land in Kowloon for development. This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. [2] The first control tower and hangar at Kai Tak were built in 1935. On April 11 of that year, the first 747 arrived in Hong Kong, and for decades photographers and planespotters had a spectacular view of the behemoths making high-performance maneuvers amid the apartment blocks and verdant peaks of the city. The maneuver prevented the plane from slamming into a peak, but now, apartment buildings seemed close enough to touch. It is one of the few remaining buildings related to Kai Tak Airport. The airport was also home to the former RAF Kai Tak. This cookie is set by pubmatic.com. [13], From September 1945 to August 1946 the airport was a Royal Navy shore base, "HMS Nabcatcher",[14] the name previously attached to a Mobile Naval Air Base for the Fleet Air Arm. [63] In June 2013, the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal was opened on the tip of the former runway. Now fading, the checkerboard is the subject of a campaign to make it an historic landmark. [2] By 1957 runway 13/31 had been extended to 1,664 metres (5,459ft), while runway 7/25 remained 1,450 metres (4,760ft) long; night operations were not allowed. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Runway 13 was the preferred departure runway for heavy aircraft due to the clear departure path, opposite that of the runway 31 departure. The aircraft would be just 2 nautical miles (3.7km) from touchdown, at a height of less than 1,000 feet (300m) when the turn was made. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. Kai Tak Airport (IATA: HKG, ICAO: VHHH) was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Under these proposals, hotels would be scattered throughout the 328-hectare (810-acre) site, and flats aimed at housing 86,000 new residents were proposed. The runway was 2,529m (8,297ft) when it was opened in 1958 and 3,390m (11,120ft) long when the airport closed. Submitted by Hong Kong, it was used four times. Pilots required special certification and training to be qualified to land their planes at Kai Tak, one of the reasons why despite the dangerous, complex approach, accidents were rare (one of the only commercial crashes during approach was a 1993 China Airlines 747 that skidded off the end of the runway after landing in a typhoon, resulting in 23 injuries and no deaths). This approach was used extremely infrequently, since the Chequerboard approach had a localiser and glide slope to work off of, and NDBs are very rarely used in commercial aviation today. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website. Many aviation enthusiasts were upset at the demise of Kai Tak because of the unique runway 13 approach. BMW also used to test its hydrogen cars on the former Kai Tak apron area. [37] Kai Tak closed to fixed-wing traffic in 1998. You can continue reading without saving your preference, or you can subscribe now. for the site of Kai Tak to be used for housing development, which was once projected to house around 240,000340,000 residents. Preference cookies are used to store user preferences to provide them with content that is customized accordingly. Curfews to limit noise restricted flights to the hours between 6:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. The purpose of the cookie is to enable LinkedIn functionalities on the page. In 1925, the first grass landing strip opened, used by the RAF and a local aviation club. A decade later, a control tower and hangar were built. It generally can be assumed this approach was used when the localiser and glide slope were offline for maintenance. Once the pattern was sighted and identified, aircraft made a low-altitude (sub-600ft) 47 right-hand turn, ending with a short final and touchdown. Built to provide more access and greater movement, the airport is now the doorway to a changed city. What if the U.S. had backed Mao during World War II? [35], The Checkerboard Approach (also spelled as Chequerboard approach) initially begins to the south-west of the airport, with aircraft flying westbound at a minimum altitude of 6000feet. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak,[1] or simply Kai Tak and Kai Tak International Airport, to distinguish it from its successor, which may be referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport, built on reclaimed and levelled land around the islands of Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau, 30 kilometres (19mi) to the west. for the purpose of better understanding user preferences for targeted advertisments. This data is used to provide users with relevant ads. [17] A huge number of resources were mobilised to build this new airport, part of the ten programmes in Hong Kong's Airport Core Programme. It may be in 1970, though, that Kai Tak acquired its legendary status. This was Hong Kong's first airport hotel, and comprised 380 rooms including 47 suites. On 1 April 1947, a Royal Naval Air Station, HMS Flycatcher, was commissioned there. The new site at Chek Lap Kok, an island in the archipelago that was coincidentally just about where pilots could pick up the checkerboard when approaching Kai Tak, was chosen. After deliberating on a number of locations, including the south side of Hong Kong Island, the government decided to build the airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok off Lantau Island. Construction of the Kai Tak Sports Park on the former airport land has also commenced in April 2019. The low-altitude turning manoeuvre before the shortened final approach was so close to these buildings that passengers could spot television sets in the apartments: "as the plane banked sharply to the right for landing the people watching television in the nearby apartments seemed an unsettling arm's length away. [19] A night curfew from 11:30 pm to 6:30 am in the early morning also hindered operations.[20]. Until its retirement in 2018, the name Kai Tak was one of the names used in the lists of tropical cyclone names in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It was certainly the case in the 2010s that new arrivals from the United States or Europe found the airport more familiar than did those coming on mainland flights. As of 2018, the public estates have been joined by some private residential developments, now nearing completion. In the 1970s an aircraft crash called attention to the potential loss of life in the high-density residential developments around the airport, though there were no serious accidents. Around 1 a.m., a brief ceremony turned out the lights on Kai Tak airport. This feature is only available for paying subscribers. Its roots were in a failed business development, the brainchild of Sir Kai Ho Kai and Au Tak. As a result, in the late 1980s, the Hong Kong Government began searching for alternative locations for a new airport in Hong Kong to replace the aging airport. You have no saved articles. After the last plane, a Cathay Pacific A340-300, took off from Kai Tak International Airport to the new Hong Kong International Airport at 01:28 HKT, Kai Tak was closed, transferring its ICAO and IATA airport codes to the replacement airport at Chek Lap Kok. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. the reverse of a Runway 13 landing). The other three sides of the runway were surrounded by Victoria Harbour. https://supchina.com/2021/07/07/there-will-never-be-another-airport-like-hong-kongs-kai-tak/. [3] The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the 6th most dangerous airport in the world.[4]. As private aviation was no longer allowed at Chek Lap Kok (having moved to Sek Kong Airfield), some enthusiasts had lobbied to keep about 1km (0.62mi) of the Kai Tak runway for general aviation, but the suggestion was rejected as the Government had planned to build a new cruise terminal at Kai Tak.[24]. [61] The revised blueprint will also extend several "green corridors" from the main central park into the surrounding neighbourhoods of Kowloon City, Kowloon Bay and Ma Tau Kok. Watching large aircraft banking at low altitudes and taking big crab angles during their final approaches was popular with plane spotters. The landing approach for planes using runway 13 at Kai Tak was considered spectacular and was infamous, not just amongst aviation enthusiasts but amongst the general public as well. On 9 January 2004, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that no reclamation plan for Victoria Harbour could be introduced unless it passed an "overriding public interest" test. Heavy aircraft on departure using runway 13 would often need nearly the entire length of the runway, particularly during summer days due to the air temperature. [25], The Kai Tak airport consisted of a linear passenger terminal building with a car park attached at the rear. [5], At the northern end of the runway at closure, buildings rose up to six stories just across a major multi-lane arterial road. It is hard not to look back at Kai Tak now as a symbol of what made Hong Kong unique. It was one-of-a-kind, requiring pilots to be specially certified in order to make hair-raising landings amid mountains and high-rises. The area is surrounded by rugged mountains. The new airport is located far away from Hong Kong's main residential areas, conducive to minimising the dangers of a major crash and also reducing the nuisance of noise pollution. [2] The runway was extended in the mid-1970s to 3,390 metres (11,130ft), the final length. The two old runways were removed with footprint used by apron and terminal building. Performance cookies are key in allowing web site screens and content to load quickly on all types of devices. For many airline passengers on planes approaching and landing on Runway 13 at Kai Tak Airport, it became referred to as the "Kai Tak Heart Attack", because they were often frightened to be turning at such a close proximity to the ground, which, at less than 150ft, or 45 metres, was generally less than even the Boeing 767's wingspan, which is considered a medium-size airliner. Are we now seeing the same process play out in the city it once served? The risk of catastrophic loss of life loomed ever larger. In 1936, the first domestic airline in Hong Kong was established. [58] The landing would become even more challenging when crosswinds from the north-east were strong and gusty during typhoons. Moments later, streets turned to runway. In 2011, with most of the former Kai Tak area still abandoned, ideas were floated to develop the area for commercial property, citing shortages of office space and rising property costs. This cookie is used to stores information about how the user uses the website such as what pages have been loaded and any other advertisement before visiting the website. In March 1936, the first commercial flight landed at Kai Tak, an Imperial Airways flight from Penang (with service connecting on to Singapore and eventually to London). Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Immediately to the south of the airport is Victoria Harbour, and farther south is Hong Kong Island with hills up to 2,100ft (640m). This in turn disrupted baggage handling and airbridge allocation. While Kai Tak was initially located far away from residential areas, the expansion of both residential areas and the airport resulted in Kai Tak being close to residential areas. This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The Hong Kong stop of Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love World Tour was held on the airport's runway on 25 January 1999. The cookie stores an ID that is used to display ads on the users' browser. There were also plans for a railway station and maintenance centre in the proposed plan for the Sha Tin to Central Link. A convoy of airport vehicles made its way to Chek Lap Kok. The new airport officially opened on 6 July 1998 to replace the functions of the Kai Tak Airport. In 1928, a concrete slipway was built for seaplanes that used the adjoining Kowloon Bay. The runway was made by reclaiming land from the harbour and was extended several times after its initial construction. Continuing to descend, the plane was now surrounded by green peaks on three sides. It almost happened, Hong Kong Palace Museum opens with treasures loaned from Beijing, The ballad of Qin Liangyu, Chinas other woman warrior, July 5, 2009: The riots that changed everything in Xinjiang, Xi will attend Hong Kongs handover, but not the press, This renovated railway station is currently Chinas social media hotspot, Greener than expected: Noticing the overlooked color of Beijing in summer. He is the author of three books on Chinas modern history, most recently Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai.
The cookie is set to identify new vs returning users. But by the end of the first week these challenges, and other teething problems, were largely resolved, the new airport was exceeding Kai Tak performance measures.
