A cargo aircraft skids off a Hong Kong runway into the sea, killing 2 people

FILE- An aircraft takes off from the runway at the Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, Nov. 27, 2024.

HONG KONG — A cargo aircraft skidded off a Hong Kong runway and collided with a security patrol vehicle before both fell into the sea early Monday, killing the two people in the car, authorities said. The plane’s four crew members were unhurt.

The Boeing 747, flown by Turkey-based ACT Airlines, was landing at Hong Kong International Airport around 3:50 a.m. from Dubai. The aircraft was being operated under lease by Emirates, a long-haul carrier based in Dubai.

The pilots did not seek help before landing and had taxied about halfway down the runway before skidding off to the left, Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director in airport operations, told a news conference.

“The patrol car absolutely did not rush onto the runway. It was the plane that went off the runway and crashed into the patrol car outside the fence,” he said.

When rescue crews arrived, the plane was broken into two parts, floating in the sea, and the four crew members were waiting to be rescued at its open door, said Yiu Men-yeung, a fire services official.

Rescuers dove into the sea and found the two security workers trapped in the car after a 40-minute search, Yiu Men-yeung said.

One of three runways remains closed

TV images showed the aircraft partially submerged just off the edge of the airport’s sea wall. Its front half and cockpit were visible above water but the tail end appearing to have broken off. Two boats, possibly with search and rescue personnel, were near the aircraft.

The crash occurred on the north runway of Hong Kong’s airport, one of Asia’s busiest. That runway remained closed, while the two others continued to operate. Steven Yiu said flights would be unaffected.

Weather was suitable at the time the plane landed and the cause of the crash was being investigated, he said.

The Air Accident Investigation Authority classified the case as an accident, with the investigation looking into multiple factors, including the flight’s system, operation and maintenance. The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were being sought.

Emirates said the Boeing 747 freighter was wet leased and operated by ACT Airlines. In wet leases, the company supplying the plane also provides the crew, maintenance and insurance. Emirates said there was no cargo on board. The aircraft was 32 years old, according to Flightradar24.

Emirates’ freight operations are performing strongly

Hong Kong International Airport was built on reclaimed land by merging two smaller islands north of Hong Kong’s Lantau Island in the South China Sea, at the mouth of the Pearl River. The northern edge of the north runway lies within a few hundred meters (yards) from the water.

Emirates operates a thriving cargo business out of Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, the sheikhdom’s second airport, where it plans a $35 billion improvement over the coming decade. The ACT Airlines’ flight had taken off from Al Maktoum, known as DWC.

Emirates, owned by a sovereign wealth fund in the city-state, noted in its most-recent annual report that it had added two wet-leased Boeing 747s “to serve surging customer demand.” Emirates has some 260 aircraft in its fleet, the majority either Boeing 777s or double-decker Airbus A380s.

Monday’s crash marked the second fatal incident for ACT Airlines. In 2017, a Boeing 747 flown by ACT Airlines under the name MyCargo crashed as it prepared to land in fog in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, killing all four crew on board and 35 people on the ground. ACT Airlines flew that route from Hong Kong on behalf of Turkish Airlines.

A later report on the crash by Kyrgyz authorities blamed the flight crew for misjudging the plane’s position while landing in poor weather. The crew was tired and had a heated exchange with air-traffic control before the crash, the report said.

Chan Ho-him, The Associated Press