Was HK's showpiece airport a crash waiting to happen?

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG (JP): Reform of the management of the Taiwan flag- carrier China Airlines, and renewed debate on Hong Kong's brand new and expensive Chek Lap Kok (CLK) airport are one result of the crash-landing on Aug. 22 of a China Airlines MD-11 passenger jet.

Three passengers were killed and around 212 were injured, some still critically, as the jet came into land during a typhoon at 6.40 p.m. According to the latest reconstruction of the tragedy, the plane clipped the runway with its right wing at 6.45 and the rest of the plane somersaulted. The remains of the MD-11 ended upside down and on fire on the grass verge near the southern runway. Emergency fire fighters were almost immediately on the scene and had the fire under control within minutes and completely out by 7.01 p.m. But it took around another 100 minutes to evacuate all the passengers, about 100 of whom walked away physically unharmed.

The first question that still arises is that several eye- witnesses initially maintained they saw the plane on fire before the wing hit the runway. So far, officials both here and in Taipei have denied that anything untoward happened to the plane before the sparks flew as the right wing hit the runway.

Another question is why was any plane landing amidst the typhoon conditions then prevailing in Hong Kong with winds gusting up to 100 miles per hour. However for those that know the territory this comes as no surprise. The old airport, close to the city at Kaitak, always stayed open during typhoons, leaving the decision to land up to the captain of any incoming plane. The new CLK airport has followed the same practice until now, though there is likely to be renewed controversy on this point as a result of this crash. Giving pilots the option to land, it is argued, means that commercial considerations may take precedence over passenger safety.

On Sunday Aug. 22, Typhoon Sam, which had earlier been elevated from being classified as merely a tropical storm, resulted in Storm Signal 8 being raised in Hong Kong, the lowest of several typhoon-strength signals. On the rare occasions in the past when Kaitak was closed, it was because higher Typhoon Signal 10 or 11 had been raised.

However the original intention of the China Airlines flight crew, in view of the adverse weather, was to fly straight from Bangkok to Taipei, overflying Hong Kong. The precise reasons why the Italian pilot and the Taiwanese co-pilot decided instead to land in Hong Kong after all have yet to be clarified. When the voice and flight recorders of the crashed MD-11 have been taken from the wreck, they will be sent to London for analysis.

Initially, this first crash at the new US$15 billion airport resurrects old doubts about the siting of CLK. Aviation experts have long pointed to the prevalence of wind shear -- the sudden up and down drafts which can be so damaging to flight -- given the position of CLK's two parallel east-west runways, also parallel to the 1,000 metre high hills on the adjacent island of Lantau.

But Hong Kong has imported the very latest high-speed computers to provide what is claimed to be a very advanced turbulence warning system. The pilot of the China Airlines plane was given all the relevant weather information available as he came into land. Officials have indicated that there was no sign of the dreaded wind-shear at that time the plane came into land, mainly because the winds were not coming from the south or southeast over those Lantau hills.

So it appears much more likely that critics will fasten onto the fact that CLK has only been planned with two east-west parallel runways, whereas frequently prevailing winds would have probably justified an angled cross runway running northwest- southeast. (Such a runway would have involved much more reclaimed land, jutting out into the shipping lane to the north of the airport and even then might have been impossible because of the hills to the south of CLK).

On Sunday, Typhoon Sam winds were coming in from the north- west at varying strength. It is these gusts which may have hit the jet almost at right angles as it made its final uncertain approach. While this kind of situation might have been avoided with a cross runway, as things stand, it makes for highly hazardous landings.

At the very least, the differing wind speeds make it extremely difficult for pilots to calculate or sustain their angle of approach to the runway. That is why some pilots either abort or avoid landing in such conditions. Others argue that the danger of miscalculation is so great as to be a prime reason for closing airports during typhoons, and taking the decision to land out of the pilot's hands.

Already there are indications from Taipei that the captain and the co-pilot of the crashed plane may have been at odds over the difficult landing. The co-pilot lost no time reporting to Taipei that he had called for the plane to abort the landing and to go round a second time but the pilot had not responded. Later the pilot was reported as saying that the co-pilot miscalculated the wind speeds. No doubt the voice recorders will ultimately clarify matters. Ironically, on the day after the crash, one plane from Taipei bringing relatives and officials to CLK, still felt unable to land in the less extreme conditions then prevailing and had to return to Taipei.

Inevitably the crash further dislocated air traffic with both runways being closed for just over six hours. Only the recently completed northern runway was immediately reopened for traffic resulting in flight delays still being commonplace.

While Hong Kong has been quick to praise its emergency services, and their quick arrival on the scene, the same cannot be said for the information provided either to the passengers milling around the terminal awaiting their flights, or to the general public at large.

Instead of clearly telling delayed passengers that a crash necessitated CLK's closure, the airport was still announcing as late as 9 p.m. that there had been "an incident". This was at least ninety minutes after websites of the New York Times and the Washington Post had already carried reports from international agencies reporting the crash and airport closure. The word "incident" is frequently used by East Asians to minimize massacres, aggression, crashes and other human tragedies.

CLK's public relations fared no better. Ironically, symbolizing the fact that Taiwan is a democracy whereas Hong Kong isn't, the first crash information freely available to one large Hong Kong news organization came from a press conference in Taiwan relayed live from Taipei by Hong Kong cable television.

Immediately the biggest loser from the crash will probably be China Airlines since yesterday's was its 12th fatal crash. In November 1993 a China Airlines Boeing 747 ran off the runway at Kaitak into Hong Kong harbor, also amid typhoon conditions, injuring 23 passengers.

This crash comes just as the Taiwan government has been delaying the further reform of China Airlines management structure, making it less like a government department and more like a competitive private corporation. Resistance to change has characterized China Airlines, as when negotiations with Singapore Airlines for it to take a minority shareholding were allowed to fall through -- and when an arrangement whereby Singapore Airlines helped improve training methods at China Airlines was abruptly ended last May.

At least the Taiwan Minister of Transport has seemed to indicate an end to complacency concerning Taiwan's flag-carrier as he has irately criticized the plane for attempting to land in such adverse weather conditions, and renewed instructions for the airline to make passenger safety its top priority. China Airlines is now in the process of reducing its number of flights so that crew are quickly given a fresh course of safety training.