A cargo plane skidded off a runway at Hong Kong International Airport and landed in the sea early on Monday, killing two ground staff.<\/p>\n
Emirates flight EK9788 was arriving from Dubai at about 03:50 local time (19:50 GMT) when it veered off the runway and collided with an airport patrol vehicle.<\/p>\n
The two people inside the vehicle died, while the four crew members onboard the plane survived the crash.<\/p>\n
It marks one of Hong Kong\u2019s deadliest aviation incidents in years \u2013 the city\u2019s international airport has had a good safety record.<\/p>\n
Authorities have launched an investigation as questions remain over the path taken by the plane upon landing.<\/p>\n
Airport officials have said they gave the correct instructions to the plane and that there are signs on the runway to guide aircraft.<\/p>\n
Airport operations executive director Steven Yiu said the patrol car was, at the time, travelling on a road outside of the runway\u2019s fencing \u201cat a safe distance from the runway\u201d.<\/p>\n
The plane then turned away from the runway, crashed through the fencing and collided with the vehicle, pushing it into the sea, Mr Yiu explained.<\/p>\n
He stressed that the car \u201cdefinitely did not run out onto the runway\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally the plane is not supposed to turn towards the sea,\u201d he said at a news conference hours after the incident, adding that the plane did not send out a distress signal when it was landing.<\/p>\n
Divers managed to locate the bodies of the patrol vehicle\u2019s driver and passenger in the sea.<\/p>\n
The two dead ground staff were aged 30 and 41 and had seven and 12 years\u2019 experience respectively, officials said.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong\u2019s transport bureau has said it was \u201csaddened\u201d by their deaths and expressed condolences to their families.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the BBC, an Emirates spokesperson said the plane \u201csustained damage on landing in Hong Kong\u201d, adding: \u201cCrew are confirmed to be safe and there was no cargo onboard.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also said the Boeing 747-481 cargo aircraft was wet leased from, and operated by, Turkish carrier Act Airlines. A wet lease is an arrangement where one airline provides the aircraft, crew, and insurance to another airline.<\/p>\n
The four crew members onboard the plane had opened the emergency doors of the aircraft shortly after the crash. They were spotted by fire service staff who arrived at the scene within two minutes, and were rescued, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Pictures show the plane had broken in half, with part of the fuselage submerged in the water with large cracks clearly visible.<\/p>\n
At least one emergency evacuation slide deployed successfully.<\/p>\n
A police official told the media that criminal investigations would not be ruled out.<\/p>\n
An official from the Hong Kong Air Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) said they were still trying to locate the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder \u2013 also known as the black boxes \u2013 from the sea.<\/p>\n
The affected runway would remain closed for the rest of the day, but the airport\u2019s other two runways are still in operation.<\/p>\n
At least 11 cargo flights initially scheduled to arrive at Hong Kong International Airport on Monday have been cancelled, according to the Airport Authority\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
It marks the second ever deadly incident at the airport since it moved from Kai Tak to Chek Lap Kok in July 1998.<\/p>\n
In August 1999, a China Airlines passenger flight crash landed during a typhoon, killing three people.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A cargo plane skidded off a runway at Hong Kong International Airport and landed in the sea early on Monday, killing two ground staff. Emirates flight EK9788 was arriving from Dubai at about 03:50 local time (19:50 GMT) when it veered off the runway and collided with an airport patrol vehicle. The two people inside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}