Places - Lost in Time: Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- This is a reupload of my original Kai Tak video, which I had to take down and do some amendments to in order to fix some technical issues.
Hello, and welcome back to Places - Lost in Time, a series that looks back on the tale of places and locations that have existing within living memory or photographic record, but are now lost to the pages of history.
In Episode 2, we take a gander at the famous Kai Tak International Airport, which was at one point the world's busiest single-runway airport in terms of traffic, and the third busiest airport on earth in terms of passenger numbers. However, while the airport was the gateway to Hong Kong, its constrained location meant it was doomed to failure.
Credit for the photo used as the video thumbnail goes to Daryl Chapman Photography on Flickr, to which I thoroughly recommend you pay his photostream a visit at the following link:
www.flickr.com...
All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated TH-camrs. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): rorymacveigh@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.
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References:
- Yesterday's Airliners (and their respective sources)
- Gwulo (and their respective sources)
- Royal Navy Research Archives
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)
Music - TH-cam Audio Library
As a commercial pilot, I rank Kai Tak as not the most challenging but certainly most testing of your piloting skills. A correctly flown approach to R/W 13, calling ' Checkerboard in sight' and following those lead in lights that brought you onto the centerline of the runway.I found the B-747-400 the most stable and the B-707 the most rewarding for a properly executed approach and landing. Thank you Kai Tak. 1976 to 1998
I heard there was a unique procedure for go round. Do you remember what it was?
How about at Maarten? Or the airport by the rock of Gibraltar. I can’t recall the name. Someone please enlighten me?
So glad I experienced the checkerboard approach on a British Airways 747 in November 1991. Then, in around 2004, a friend of mine who was a captain at Cathay Pacific, invited me to one of his simulator checkouts at an industrial estate in Burgess Hill in the UK. When it was my turn he asked me which approach I wanted to fly... I instantly shot back ‘The checkerboard approach into Hong Kong!!’ The team had to check that Kai Tak was still loaded on the simulator software as it had already been out of use for a number of years, but it was still there, and I ‘flew’ a Cathay 747 into Kai Tak 😃 Kinda hard landing, I think the uc collapsed and the wings might have fallen off, but I got it down, and didn’t fall off the end of the runway, so all good 🤣🤣 Happy daze
What a great memory. I wonder if landing at Kai Tak is available in any consumer simulators today.
@@raksh9 of course! Try recalling the following addons: FlyTampa Hong Kong + KaiTak for FSX to P3D, Project VHHX by Red Wing Simulations MSFS, and many more!
I was 4 when I landed the first time in Hong Kong, a young boy from Montreal. It was in fall 1960. We lived on Victoria hill for five years, overlooking the HK harbour. We could see Kai Tak from our building and it wad amazing to watch planes arriving and departing. We went to a french Canadian nun’s school in Kowloon. They had opened a special class for caucasians, who were the kids of french engineers who worked on the expansion of the airport. At that time travelling was an experience of its own. We had to wear a tie, even as kids. Numerous timed I had dreams that involved air travels. Us kids we were fond of airplanes, they were our friends. And yes Hong Kong in the 60’s was an amazing experience. A privilege very much appreciated. I went back in 1988 but HK had nothing to do with the one I knew. Thank you for the video. It reminded me fond memories.
Flew into Kai Tak on leave from the US Army in April 1985. Thai .international 747 sitting in the extreme right window seat. Looked out & looked into someone’s apartment while they were watching TV
Also on leave from US Army circa 1986, with my wife via Northwest 747. At night so looking into apartments was, well, plane as day?
Same experience in January 1997, you could see directly through the window, into ppl's apartment. And of course I had to take a picture of some plane over a street.
What did you watch on their TV? Was it a telenova?
Privacy was none existent. It is said that you could tell the tourists because they were the only ones who looked up at these low flying planes.
What were they watching? Wings?
I went to primary school near Kai Tak, I remember during air traffic rush hours, the teacher had to stop talking and wait every 5 minutes because screaming jets would roar near and over our school. Those were the days.
Was that by any chance St. Andrews primary school?
@@kevinburt44 it was LaSalle 🙂
I was in secondary school during the last years of Kai Tak in nearby Kowloon Tong. My school was blessed to have two-layers of windows, retrofitted to be double-glazed, to make sure that the noise intrusion wasn’t significant.
Tears wanted to roll down as I see these footages of the old Hong Kong… those were the good days, and I miss Hong Kong of the olden days.
Lest we forget. I didn’t realise that prisoners were used to build the airport. Thank you for posting this video.
I didn't realize that either and it saddens me to see so many famous landmarks were build through suffering. I dedicate the beautiful memories I have of this airport to them (I'm not sure if this is the appropriate way to express this in English as it is not my native language). May they rest in peace.
What
I had no idea it was built by Japanese PoWs. As you say, "lest we forget"
@@oldmanc2 good it was Japanese POWs. Considering how much harm the Japanese imperial Army did to Asia.
@rickster not Japanese prisoners but allied prisoners, taken by the Japanese. So not so good.
My father was a pilot on a British airways 747 and I was fortunate enough to do the Kai tak approach and landing in the jump seat. Ahh back in the day before all these regulations and when the only planes in the sky were 747s 😭😭😭
Wow, what unique memories you must have! I envy you.
My father also worked for British Airways and had the same experiences, certainly brings a tear to my eye thinking about it 😊
Queen of the Skies my Queen! Long may She soar!:-) 🖖
My dad was a flight engineer for Cathay Pacific based at Kai Tak during the late 70s 80s and early 90s. He flew Boeing 707s, Lockheed, TriStars Then Boeing 747-400s. I to was lucky enough to sit in the jump seat but on take off. Also had experience of the north east approach on many occasions.
Yea,2 engined planes are boring to look at
A very fond memory of Kai Tak for me was back in early June 1998, about a month before Kai Tak permanently closed. My father, sister, and I visited some relatives in Hong Kong and China, and had landed in Kai Tak from Minneapolis using the former Northwest airlines. We landed from the southeast which meant that our plane did not perform the infamous 45 degree checkerboard approach. As you landed, you can easily see the apartment buildings only a few hundred feet below you from Chai Wan and the city of downtown Hong Kong on your left. It was around 10 or 11 P.M. and the dazzling lights from the apartment buildings were lit up like a Christmas tree. I was 14 years old at the time and could remember the airport terminal as being very huge, not knowing that the terminal was a multistory building. I believe there was arrivals on one floor and departures on another floor. The baggage claim area was pretty old, and the area was expansive.
Before you walk outside of the building and into the city, I could remember another interesting structural aspect of Kai Tak. This was the orange steel ceilings which was found in the shopping mall in the airport and a few other areas including the entrance of their main restaurant (I forgot the name of the restaurant). Never before in my life that I saw a building with orange ceilings, which to this day made me interested in architecture and building design. Additionally, there were a ton of lights in the ceilings of the terminal building. I bet it was time consuming trying to fix and replace all the lightbulbs.
Three weeks later, we had to leave Hong Kong and fly back to the United States going to Minneapolis on a Delta flight. This was a week before the month of July 1998 in the early morning hours. It was raining heavily (which is very typical of Hong Kong weather) and extremely foggy, and Kai Tak was the final place you went through before you left Hong Kong. Again, as you enter the terminal building, you come across the orange ceilings. However the orange ceilings were not found in the check in counters which was on a different floor, I believe. Back then, I did not know that this airport was going to be closed, but there was somewhat of an aura or feeling that the building was in its last days. The last memory of me at Kai Tak was at the dimly lit departure gate area ready to board the Delta before it flew southeast towards Kowloon Bay into the rain and heavy fog. I went back to Hong Kong again 10 years later in September 2008 but at the more modern Chek Lap Kok airport.
If I had one wish, it is to travel back in time and experience some of the history involved in Hong Kong with the exception of World War II. I would had loved to explore all the nooks and crannies of Kai Tai airport including all of the terminal building, airport hangars, and the runway. Kai Tak was truly a gem for this city, and only memories and remnants of history are left to make it known to future generations of this once bustling airport.
I had the privilige once to land at Kai Tak riding the cockpit jump seat onboard a Cathay Pacific 747. The Captain was an Aussie, the copilot Swedish. This was long before passengers could not visit the flight deck. Both pilots were very experienced, still there was a definite change of atomosphere in the cockpit once the approach began. A real experince. Thank you Captain for a great ride!
Great report Sir. The best time for commercial aviation. Was always a pleasure to have passengers in our 744 cockpit on IGS 13 approach. Greetings from Frankfurt, Germany
I was born in Hong Kong and lived with my grandmother who had an apartment on the top floor in Sun Po Kong, directly under the flightpath of the airport and we could see the bellies of the planes mere metres above us, I was really fascinated by it all and it was really wonderful that I had the privilege to travel around Asia just by crossing the street. I also went to school in Kowloon and it was very common for the entire class to pause for 20 seconds, mid-teaching, as the engines of aeroplanes soar past every few minutes. My parents moved out to the NT when we were young but we made a day trip to Kai Tak on one of its final days, and went to visit grandma afterwards. Aaaah.
I have many happy memories of Kai Tak and I'm left feeling very nostalgic having travelled in and out of Hong Kong through Kai Tak for many years, even taking off on a Cathay night flight to London in '83 during typhoon Ellen.
On one occasion I was invited to sit in the jump seat to experience the landing from the cockpit of a Malaysian 747; something I'll never forget - happy days!
I've flown in and out of both of Hong Kong's airports and, while the new one felt much safer, Kai Tak was much more fun.
I remember sitting in the cockpit of a 747 coming into the new one, it was scary to see the runway off to the side when on approach due to wind shear! It was absolutely incredible to see the pilots swinging it straight as we touched down, pretty scary though 😁
What was fun about it?
@@oliverlane4050 Why were you in the cockpit?
@@thebeaz1 For the experience really, my father was cabin crew and the pilots often asked if I would like to go up and sit in for take off or landing, certainly some of the greatest experiences of my life!
@@thebeaz1 For the young adrenalin junky I was back in those days, being on a 747 sized rollercoaster with a very real possibility of fiery death was a hoot. Others may have felt differently... :)
20:30
Translation: Now, it's 1:16am. Within this 55 seconds, Accompanied us for 73 years, the airport Kai Tak, is closed.
great contribution thanks!
@@LeastTango
For those who don't know...
Yesterday. July 6, 2020.
Marks the 22nd year anniversary of the closure of one the most famous airports known to mankind. It is no other than Kai Tak Airport.
When I was a kid, we had relatives in Hong Kong, so we'd visit them pretty much every summer, and flew in/out of Kai Tak. When we flew out, would always dine at the top floor restaurant before our flight (which was regular priced restaurant with good food.) I remember watching a Concorde land during one visit (there was no announcement for it, just landed like any other flight) I was like "wait, really... you see that?" and Air Force One (or some 747 with US Presidential color scheme and symbols) land on another visit.
Childhood memories! I use to live in Kowloon City and every time I look up! I could see the belly of a plane and feel the rumble of the engines! It's like I could reach up and touch one! I'll always remember the time when a plane missed it's approach and powered up the engines! My house was rumbling with the noise of the engines! It was like a huge earthquake! The scariest thing I've ever encountered!
*its
Remember being in Lion Rock Road shopping, felt like you could touch them didn't it?
@@BrianWMay Yup! Felt like I could reach my hand up and touch the belly of the plane.
I will be sad for the rest of my life I never had the chance to visit Hong Kong before 1997.
People I know people who served there in the 60's and 70's including one of my own great uncles. It was a hell of a time. I know a fair few people who had the chance to fly into HK including an old childhood friend. I sadly never had that opportunity.
I used to live there under the flight path in 93/94 and spent a good few nights on the side up the checkerboard with my pals watching the planes come in at night. Amazing memories. Thanks for uploading. :)
It's called "checkerboard hill", not "lion hill". I think you've confused it for "Lion Rock", which is a mountaintop in the same part of Hong Kong
20:24 "Goodbye Kai Tak, and thank you." The last words before the runway lights turn off
Beautiful documentary. I’m an ex Cathay employee who had the opportunity to sit in the jump seat of a 747-300 for the checkerboard approach and a departure on the 747-400. Both occasions are etched in my memories of such a beautiful and unique airport
Amazing airport in an amazing city. I flew there in 1979. Thanks for the memories!
Flew into HK many times in '96-'97.
The landings were a real thrill.
And the sky over Kowloon from the streets was surreal.
Brilliant video! I was 10 years old when my family moved to HK from the USA. One of my fondest travel memories was our first landing at Kai Tak in a Pan Am 747. Very exciting indeed!
Great video, thank you! I learned a lot about the famous Kai Tak. Some friends and I snuck into the Walled City just after they kicked everyone out of there and had started it's demolition. After combing through the labyrinth of the place, an amazing experience, we went up to the roof and sat for a few hours watching the planes land. They came right over us made the sharp turn and then down onto the runway. An incredible experience and great memory. It was a last minute plan and one of the few days on my travels I didn't have my camera with me, silly boy!
Thnaks for you documentary, as a guy living very far from Hong Kong, I would never even hear about these incredible pieces of history. Very well made and nice narrative.
I really liked it!
This by far is the most comprehensive and interesting documentary for Kai Tak. Thank you.
... absolutely incredible ... landed there twice in 1988 ... severe buffeting on approach then the drastic plunge and brake ... could have been a sci-fi movie morphed into reality ... a friend flew for Singapore Air said he had to suppress terror on each occasion that HK was his destination ... most amazing that multiple disasters did not occur !!! ... God Bless the courageous pilots !!!
Fascinating. Thanks. So great to see my photo with credit at the end. This was from my first trip here in !991!
Great content. Your videos remind me of old documentaries on DVDs. I wish more people knew your channel.
November 1980. QF02 from YSSY to VHXX. Buildings both sides on approach. Exhilarating!.. 4 days later, Departure!. Mind blowing to say the least.
Being 12 year old boy from Yugoslavia standing and watching planes land for what seemed hours back in the 1990. I will never forget my time in Hong Kong and that feeling of awe and amazement.
many fond memories of landing and departing from Kai Tak. Loved the night time approaches from the East, watching the mountains and buildings fly by so close, was exhilirating
Great Video. Would love to revisit the 90's and enjoy the thrilling approaches and departures.
A pity that the Mandarin/China Airlines MD-11 accident wasn't featured in conjunction with the other accidents mentioned. Quite a spectacular accident with wing strike flipping it over onto its crown. Incredibly 312 pax/crew survived while sadly 3 did not. Really deserved a mention.
My parents lived in HK from 1984 to 1996 and I visited them at least twice a year. Always a thrill flying into Kai Tak. Nothing like the smell of the harbor to tell a traveler that they have arrived.
That opening with the airplanes flying really close to the building's tops reminded me of Ghost in The Shell. 👌🏻😎👍🏻
Live action scarjo GIAS is awesome.
But it’s real not make believe.
@@matty6848 wut?
The city in GITS is based at least partly on Hong Kong.
Every time this GITS iconic shot gets brought up I am tempted to Cue somber Star Wars the force awakens music
“It’s true - all of it” - a Cathay pacific 747 pilot, probably
- the specially modified ILS
- the checkerboard
- the 47 degree right turn
- the special simulator training the runway 13 approach required
- the overcrowding
- the noise
- the operations curfews
Kai Tak is gone now but it whether we want to admit it or not, it had to die for the right reasons.
I landed there with BA 747s a couple of times in the late 1970s.
The second time was just as a typhoon was starting..BA was the last flight in that day..we were coming from Kuala Lumpur and the captain was racing the storm..he made it!
Both my father(as a pilot) and myself as a passanger in October 1997flew into Kia Tak. If I hadnt been warned about the approah to 13 I would have been most alarmed. Great nostalgic and fascinating upload.
Thanks for this. A long time ago, I used to live in Osborn Barracks in Kowloon Tong - a 20 minute walk away from the airport . As an Army-sponsored boarding school pupil, I used to fly in regularly to spend holidays with my parents.
I never knew all that fascinating history or even why it was called Kai Tak. Wonderful memories of watching the planes fly in and out and also of flying in myself. My first ever time being as a foetus on a Bristol Britannia for complicated military reasons!
I could see the checkerboard from our flat: it dominated the view rather!
I also lived at Lyemun Barracks above Shaukiwan on Hong Kong Island so got the experience from the other end of the runway as well.
I flew out on the last day. 3rd last flight. Eerily quiet terminal with workers dismantling bits of the terminal as soon as we moved through it towards the gate.
Did you shorten the video? I think the 25-30 min format is good, some of your videos were very long haha.
Imagine how much shorter the video would be without the long pauses
I feel for honk Kong. Stay strong brothers
For those who don't know...
Yesterday. July 6, 2020.
Marks the 22nd year anniversary of the closure of one the most famous airports known to mankind. It is no other than Kai Tak Airport.
Thank you brother.
One of my biggest regrets is never having made it to Hong Kong before the old airport shut down. I was just a couple of years too late. My first time in HK was still an amazing experience though.
Same here and now I live on what would be the approach in a building that couldn't have been built when the airport was operating. Amazing photos and videos, I wish was still working.
Wow this brought back memories! Many thanks.
I really did thoroughly enjoy watching that. Very informative. It really could have been shown on the BBC such was the quality.
Excellent production with great narration detail, the skill of the pilots has to be commended in the storm season, I always liked a day time landing at Kai Tak. Never been to the new airport as I stopped travelling abroad years ago. I always flew Cathay Pacific too. Not many people know that the airline was founded by Australian expats. Thank you Ruairidh, it's clear a lot of time and research went into this presentation and it was much appreciated. Thank you sir!
Gary H. 1981from Auckland to HK. I was indeed amazed with the sight of multi level accommodations.laundry strung out over the streets ..wow! Ka mau te wehi!!! Awesome memory. Hk was a great city ..students as our guides and company. singer for Asia 1981.😅
Now, that was some pilot *skillz!!!* - 11:20 Well done... I rarely sit thru TH-cam videos this long
747 flown by Korean Air. That has always been my favorite clip. :D
I had a flight transfer there on my way to NZ from the UK back in 1996. The landings during heavy weather with tall buildings very visible outside your window were nerve wracking.
an awesome tribute to the history of Kai Tak. Well done and thankyou.
Fascinating. Thanks for your work putting this together. 👍
There was tremendous changes and growth in world economies in the 1970's and 80's and I remember from Dubai Kai Tak and Singapore's Changi airports were gateway airports to Europe via Dubai. Fond memories.
I really like your work, there are not many documentaries about the stuff you cover
I only got to go to Kai Tak once and that was aboard my first Cathay Pacific flight from JFK/Vancouver/HK/Bangkok but it was an incredible experience and I am SO glad I did it! I have been to Chep Lap Kok many times and enjoy it--as I do Cathay Pacific (my favorite airline in the world) but I AM sorry I wasn't able to use Kai Tak many other times in the past when I was flying from Boston to Bangkok/Chiang Mai. Thank you for such a wonderful video of a wonderful airport!
When my Uncle visited HK, he was one of the last passengers to land at this airport. Just a few days later, he departed via the new one.
The old HK is way more better, it has this vibe of a vivid international city with people from everywhere feeling free to explore themselves within the city. Kai Tak was dangerous for the pilots but for the tourists it was one of the main point going to HK. Now with all these mainland influences HK degrades to a soulless communist city like any other on chinese territory. No wonder people are leaving the city it is not the genuine HK anymore, it is has been destroyed and assimilated to become a chinese city. RIP HK !
Excellent, very informative video on the most legendary of airports.
19:37 I know you're Chinese isn't great, but I fly to Chongqing Jiangbei International airport many times before and it's a privilege to know that the last flight to Kai tek was from Chongqing, where my family is from. The old way to say it was "Chung King Chiang Pei" international airport, but now spelled as "Chongqing Jiangbei International airport".
OK for a start - translating Cantonese into the Roman alphabet can only be an approximation. Even among Chinese we pronounce words differently depending on the region - so no one, apart from those from specific regions, is any the wiser - anyway if it made you feel better to post it, then God bless you.
And your* English clearly isn't great either..
The way I understood the commentary in your video, the checkerboard was installed in 1974. We lived in HK from '69-'75 at 28 Oxford Road, Kowloon Tong, and I have recollections of the checkerboard before '74. Is it possible that the checkerboard was painted on the little hill prior to that time and that the landing equipment was installed in '74?
Great video! Thanks for putting it together!
Very nice presentation. I wish I could have flown in on that checkerboard approach before the airport closed.
Great vlog as always! In Norway the same happened 3 months later when FBU closed and moved to GEN and became OSL!
Finally it is back
Thank you very much, but still the original was the best
did he shorten it?
Dont know, but alot of video scenes have been change from the original video (i think)
@@khapho Compare 1961 East Berlin Vs 2021 Hong Kong IN YOUR NEXT VIDEO!!
The old Hong Kong was beautiful and free
The new Hong Kong will just be another city in China
Absolutely can't agree more with that,,,,,
I'v always wanted to visit there , I have recently seen some shows on how people live their, terrible.
It's so dirty there now.
It's overflowing with the smallminded mainland Chinese now.
Its a shame
@@Oden-Heinrich I agree. Many Chinese immigrated to HK and everyone here is sad. The only people who are happy are brain dead assholes who believe that China would actually bring joy to HK
I love kai tak, its such a interesting airport
J
This video is a true gem, well done to you!
Too good, informative and very very touching
What is the story between You and Hong Kong? And Thank you for taking the time to make this in depth history of Kai Tak airport. This video really help me understand more of it's history.
This is great and truly brought back a lot of my childhood memory. I used to live in Sham Shui Po district, which is right underneath the approach path of runway 13. The constant howl and sight of jets overhead every few minutes is something I never forget.
I remember my first time going there. British Airways flight BA31 from Manila to London Heathrow via Kai Tak. The checkerboard approach was one of my best and the scariest that I experienced that time. And now all experience became memories as the new Hong Kong International Airport replaced it all.
In the early years of jet aviation and modern(ish) Kai-Tak airport operations it must have been frightening at best and sheer terror at worst taking off and landing at the airport, if I remember rightly the approach path for one runway was straight over the upward expansion of the city skyline and the terrain dominated by mountains, and then a steep decent to land, however I could be thinking of somewhere completely different, but having runways that go out into the bay would be extremely unnerving. I never got to serve in Hong Kong with the RAF, a pity, anyone who served there always referred to it as the best posting ever, but in recompense I did do two tours in Germany.
Another excellent episode, thanks for the upload and the quality, interesting topic, and informative presentation. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
Flew in there on BA in 92 I think. A sporty landing and very spooky looking out into people's balconies
Flew there in 1976, though I was only 4. Been to HK since, but wish I could remember Kai Tak.
The coolest airport ever! God those views with the planes so close overhead the city were awesome! sad they took it down,,,but the new park land and ship terminal are really beautiful architecture.
OMG...fun memories of the 50 or so times I used Kai Tak...🥳🥳🥳
"Thrilling" is not the kind of flight I ever want to have.
Be careful you hurt yourself getting out of bed. Might just be best to stay under your blanket . . .
@@TRPGpilot As if you can't get hurt there.
My last flight into Kai Tak was in 1991 in a DC 8-71 with Southern Air Transport. I arrived from Darwin Australia and we spent the night. The next day I had the opportunity to visit the sights I remembered from my Navy days in the 50s and 1960s. The Ride up Victoria Hill in the tram, the bar on top where many of my buddies spent evenings looking at the sunset.
The departure was on runway to the NW during what was the start of a very bad typhoon on our way to Japan, and Fairbanks Alaska. Lots of memories there.
Those were the days, standing in the street, counting the rivets on the underside of the aircraft coming in
Great storytelling! Thank you!
Have you had your coffee already? Lots'a love, cheers, & Mabuhay, from tropical Philippines!
Considering how much time it was in operation, a lot of lives has been lost there. Probably more then most commercial airport/runways..
And with about 6 minutes of crash reports, I wouldn't call it all that safe. As far as I know there has been one single fatal accident in Copenhagen airport Kastrup, and it opened in 1925.
That plane crashed due to structural failure and pilot error, in 1947. Rip......
But that's what I would consider a safe airport.
When I was in the RAF air cadets one of the NCO's, an older gentleman, was a BA pilot. He told us all about his many landings (and go arounds) at Kai tak. He always specifically told us about him watching concorde land one time between flights. He was cool.
thank you for this video, brings me back old memories when our family migrated out of china, in 1986 we had a layover in the iconic airport, i was a kid some things are blur to my memory but this video really brings me puts me there again.
very good! your definitely up and coming. Look forward to watching more of your videos keep up the good work.
I was an airport operations manager for 3 years at KT in the late 1980s. It was a horrible, congested, restricted, dangerous mess of an airport and should have been closed and replaced years before it was. It was a nightmare to manage and goodness only knows how we avoided a major accident.
As a kid I would sit at the Sunderland Rd checkerboard for hours watching the jets come in. Both civil & military types during the 1971-74 period of my stay in Hong Kong.
Really enjoying these videos! Just the right length, pace and informative! 👍😊
First time I flew to Hong Kong was through Kai Tak - I thought it was a good year before it closed but it must have been months as I was certain it was 1998.
Memories for me were light, I just remember being disappointed with the approach to landing (will cover in a second), getting a bus from the plane to the terminal, it being some what run down (which if they were in the process of starting to decommission would make sense), and getting a taxi from out site to the hotel. Can't remember much about the way out.
The disappointment over the landing approach was because I was on the wrong side of the plane (as I later learnt). The captain announced were were approaching and should look out of the windows and you could hear oohs and ahhs from the other side while mine was some what muted. Sure we could see buildings 20, 30, 40 feet below, but we did not have the famous ' peek in to buildings experience'. I later discovered you just got it with one side of the plane.
I do remember the planes just above roof top when wandering about the city and I am actually now about to dig out my box of old photos to see what I have from back then. - edit - just confirmed from notes with the pictures, it was 1996
Feel very privileged to have flown into HK a couple of times when I was posted there in the Royal Navy. I was one of the last UK military to leave HK following the handover and HK will always remain a special part of me for that opportunity. I’m glad I went back in 2009 for a visit with my wife but fear that may be the last time given the current political climate there. I absolutely loved HK and the approach to Kai Tak will remain with me forever!
I was in HK in 1996 for two months before the handover. It still felt very British (although there was a looming dread in the air). I returned to HK 10 years afterwards and noticed a distinct change in the culture. Much more mainland Chinese and authoritarian. The police used to be a friendly and helpful presence. Today, they're around to make sure you don't step out of line. Just my impression as an outside observer.
Lion Hill was actually called Lion Rock due to the outline looking like a resting lion - also known by its official name of Beacon Hill. The chequer board was in Kowloon Tsai park and was still there long after Kai Tak closed. Flights also used to come in directly over Lion Rock and fly straight into the airport, passing over Kowloon Tsai and Kowloon Tong. The video images are from Kowloon City district, alternatively known as ‘stinkies market’. I know this as I lived in both Kowloon Tsai and Kowloon Tong in the 70s and 80s.
Really interesting video, thank you. Love your work.
Thank you for sharing this, I remember sitting in the cockpit of a 747 for landing into Kai Tak in the 90s and again for take off, an absolutely wonderful experience!
Kai Tak itself also played a part in an unrelated disaster that would happen in the skies of Taiwan...
On February the 7th, 1980, a China Airlines Boeing 747-200 (then under the registration number B-1866) was on final approach to Kai Tak as China Airlines Flight 009 from Stockholm to Taipei (the plane had already made a stopover in Jeddah.) when the 747 suffered a tailstrike on Runway 13. That plane was flown back unpressurised to Taipei, where (between May 23rd to 26th, 1980) a more permanent repair was done on the Jumbo.
On May the 25th, 2002 that same 747 (now given it’s last registration number B-18255) departed Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport at 3:08 p.m (local time on that day) for Hong Kong, this time as China Airlines Flight 611 with 225 passengers & crew onboard. 8 minutes later the flight crew received clearance to climb to FL350 but at 3:33 p.m with only some 100+ feet left to the assigned cruise alttitude; the 747 broke apart near the Penghu Islands, killing all onboard.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the 1980 tailstrike at Kai Tak had caused damage to the plane’s fuselage, but China Airlines engineers only fitted a doubler plate over the damaged area and let the plane resume flying. Over time that damage caused fatigue cracks that spread throughout the lower tail area of that 747. The end result was those cracks finally coming together on May the 25th (22 years to the day that faulty repair was carried out) and tore the Jumbo apart with the loss of 255 lives. (ballistics trajectory analysis on the recovered wreckage of the Jumbo allowed the Taiwanese ASC to determine that it was the tail section of the 747 that broke off first, thus leading to the discovery of the very piece of wreckage where the 747 had suffered it’s 22-year old tailstrike.)
Similar to JAL 123. Scary how something that happened years before came back to cause a terrible disaster.
Then it was not the tailstrike it was the faulty repair what caused the accident.
@@mrkipling2201 The peace dictates of WW1 caused WW2 and Cold War what caused the USA became the sole superpower what probably cause WW3 if the USA want to remain the sole superpower. And WW1 was caused by Germany's unification and emerging as an industrial superpower. It is not really scary rather perfectly normal. But it is really interesting to see.
Was fortunate as an 8-11 year old to live under the approach close to checkerboard hill. Great memories
20:21 No, I'm not crying... *Sobs*
An interesting history and great homage to this famous airport. I always wanted to go there, and was sure that some day I would, but as so many dreams it never happened. Such a long flight, and not cheap etc., I kept putting it off, until it was too late.
I lived in Kowloon for 3 years (1976 - 1979), we could see the planes turning by the checker board. In Kowloon market, the planes would be so low that you could see the under carriage. What an amazing place to go :)
Hi Keith, me too but slightly earlier from 1974 - 1977. We lived in Kowloon Tsai, Beacon hill just below the radar as it was then. I was 11 when we arrived and went to St George's school. I can remember my first thoughts getting off the RAF VC10, what's that smell and crikey it's hot! Loved it though, many memories especially the car club at school, run by Jim! I could go on, cheers.
@@andy-james- We climbed onto Lions Rock but I don't think you can do that anymore. Amazing views from the the top, we lived in the green and white flats near the TV studio, in Kowloon. St Georges school was where I went also, Great memories :)
Another excellent video, thanks!
This is very interesting and informative
Landed and taken off from Kai Tak so many times....it was a wild ride coming in over Mong Kok and banking right over Kowloon City. It was always cool looking out and seeing the buildings getting closer and closer.
Ahh our old Airport. Those were the days we used to enjoy riding KMB double deck bus with open sliding windows flowing big winds come in but this days all the buses are fixed windows. Miss those old days.
The last time I flew out of Kai Tak we were delayed because there was a massive swing in the wind direction which meant that 5 tons of cargo had to be off-loaded so we could get off the ground. That’s how critical it could be.
Imagine if the A340-500/600, A380, 747-8, 777X or the Antanov An-225 landing at Kai Tak? That said, this video is one of the best videos on the amazing and infamous Kai Tak airport. Would have loved to have flown into (and out off) Kai Tak! Shame it closed when it did.
I remember this well. My uncle was a flight engineer on 707, 737, and finally, 747. He used to joke about putting a fishing pole out the cargo bay and hooking laundry from the Kow Loon Walled City.