HONG KONG KAI TAK - The "Heart Attack Approach" 

My sister worked as a flight attendant for Cathay Pacific so I was able to sit in the engineer's seat in the cockpit on the approach to Kai Tak. My first time doing this I was 10 years old and I remember seeing people having dinner in their apartments, chopsticks and all. It was a surreal experience.

Todd B saw people eating their evening meal. Like all normal. Jets flying at eye level past their apartments and then the big turn so you don’t crash into Mount Victoria. And then driverless buses to the terminal.exhilirating

Simon Curtis Funny thing to say 🤷‍♂️ I flew in from Singapore as a kid in '77 or '78 and was invited up to the cockpit for the landing too. Sat in jumpseat behind pilot. Eyes out on stalks 🛬

When I first flew into Kai Tat everything seemed normal until I looked out the window and saw a Citizen watches sign, level with the plane.

And the crazy TV antennas on top of building. Lucky to ever experience it once.

Many thanks, much appreciated!

Correct choice of airline! CX cockpit crew all lived in HK so they flew into and out of Kai Tak much more regularly than others did!

Paul M. You should visit Santos Dumont in Rio de Janeiro

There was two published ways of doing the final turn. One was standard the other would start a litlle later so that you had to do a sharper turn which in turn would grant a bit more time on the straight final segment. Pure geometry in fact. Maybe that is what you are alluding to.

747 convention lol

Its awesome

The 777 was still relatively new at this time, so not many of it existed, unlike today.

We landed in the early evening a couple of days after Christmas in 1995. The jetways were full and we parked on the apron and climbed down many stairs to get out of our 747. Standing on the apron, looking out over the bay, through the dusk there was a long string of lights in the sky, all landing lights of 747's! The jetways all had 747's facing the terminal and there were several more 747's like ours, parked on the apron. I had never seen so many 747's before and have not since. It makes sense though. We flew into Los Angeles in a smaller plane then switched to the 747 for the trip over the Pacific to Hong Kong. That trip was 27 hours, door to door. At the time the 747 was the long haul leader, having both capacity and range. Later flights were single hops in a 777 to/from Chek Lap Kok which reduced flying time to about 15 hours.

In the 70s and 80s, ANY flight over an ocean = 747! It was the long haul flight standard. I’m still sad I won’t ever fly in a 747 again, such an iconic experience and that plane is just HUGE! We saw on on the tarmac last year in Detroit (I think it was Korean Air) and my kids were a bit bemused at my overly enthusiastic excitement at pointing it out to them. 🤩

Many thanks for your comment. Much appreciated!

You mean right turn ?

correct. I meant right turn.

Adrenaline junkies would love this plane ride for sure lol

When I visited HK back in 2006, I remember driving by it. It's just and empty field still paved with weed growing between the tarmac.

@@Cal3000 Its quite sad, never got to see such a wonderful airport.

If you Google the Kai Tak site today, the city of Hong Kong has developed it into living space but they've kept the runway intact and have incorporated it into the neighborhood layout. They also restored Checkerboard Hill. I'm glad to see that they did that. Losing such an important part of Hong Kong's history would be sad and wasteful.

Flew in over the water Thankfully … landed on terra firma In good time 🤣 1995

That description is more apt to what it's like watching freight trains than planes.

Near faultless landing at the airport 😇 .. first time simulator experience at Singapore (flyer)

Very true!

Well we wouldnt have the magnificent skyline today if it weren’t for good old kai tak

But you have a point

Well it is severely overloaded

Sounds like they lost the ability to be woken up be landing planes ✈️

Welcome! Much appreciated.

not place - time.

Thanks mate :)

@Literally Shaking No need, it's all stored in my memory like it was yesterday

😮😮😮 I didn't know this. Thanks so much for the info. Very interesting!

You are both correct and incorrect there. Runway 13 at Kai Tak used a heavily modified ILS called an IGS that worked much like an ILS but lead to the giant red and white checkerboard instead of the start of the runway where the localizer was. They flew the approach on autopilot right up until the last leg of the IGS approach then they disconnected the autopilot to fly the 47 degree right turn manually. Specialized simulator training to account for this ensured that flying into Kai Tak was considered a privilege to pilots

@@michaelho4014 Yes. And I stand corrected.

steff serpent sure

Goku just saying going past a high rise building at 150-60 knots it’s not likely they’ll see you.

Yeah right

I believe you, friend

bullshit

Thanks a lot! Much appreciated 😃👍

Recently spent 1 hour 20 minutes circling Manchester airport Finally landed (strong winds) Silence amongst passengers onboard. Sure glad that experience didn’t befall me in Hong Kong in 1995 🙂

@@jamescrompton6273 Ironically I also had the same experience when I flew into Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) airport 2 weeks ago. As the plane approached DFW, the pilot announced the plane will be circling the area as the airport was closed due to a severe thunderstorm. After more than an hour, the pilot announced it may have to divert flight to nearby Waco if DFW is still closed to traffic. Fortunately after an hour and half circling the airport, we finally landed in DFW. Whew!

Many thanks! Glad u like it!

Many thanks, much appreciated!

it stays with you !!!

Hi Stanley, many thanks for your comment. I actually talked to a pilot many years ago who was flying Boeing 707 at a time where they didn´t have simulators. So they grabbed a 707, flew to Kai Tak and trained the classic style with touch and go´s.

That was China Airlines Flight 605, a brand new 747-400. Aircraft was written off.

Many thanks, glad u like it!

Agree...my first arrival in hk was in Kai tak.1998

Thanks, glad u like it! All videos taken by myself :)

There are thousands like me who are fed up with punks re-uploading other peoples aviation films or boring us with films of their dull flights in interiors of bad taste or of some faceless airport. We all miss Kai Tek. Everywhere is the same now. Thanks again.

Aditya Badami same. I remember skimming the roof tops in a Cathay 747

Thanks J.J.! Happy u like it!

I've landed sometimes in HK Kai Tak in early foggy morning hours from the waterside, so the other approach was always possible. However the wind situation during the day made landing from the Kowloon side the standard approach as I was told by a CX pilot.

@@ChrVoigt Yes the wind was normaly blowing from the southwest but more importantly. If they land on rwy 31they woul also have to take of on rwy 31 across Kowloon and that was problematic and ment wight restrictions due to the mountain ranges surrounding the airport. You cant have landings and take off at oposite directions at a busy sing rwy airport.

It would be rough, no doubt, but flights didn't land/take off 24 hours a day. There was a strict curfew enforced from 1130PM to 630AM. Still, who wants to be woken up at 630 every single day by the roar of jet engines?