A cargo aircraft flying from Dubai skidded off the runway into the sea while landing at Hong Kong International Airport, the city’s airport operator said Monday, killing two people on the ground.
The aircraft taxied about halfway down the runway before skidding off it to the left and hitting a patrol car, said Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director in airport operations.
He added authorities were investigating the exact cause of the crash, with weather, runway conditions, the aircraft and aircrew part of the investigation.
What do we know about the Hong Kong flight incident?
The Emirates flight EK9788, owned by Turkish cargo airline Air ACT, flight was landing at around 3:50 a.m. (1950 GMT on Sunday), before it skidded off a runway.
When rescue crews arrived, the plane was split in two and floating in the sea. The four uninjured crew members were waiting at the open door, said fire services official Yiu Men-yeung.
Rescuers later found two security workers trapped in a car underwater after a 40-minute search.
Four crew members were rescued and taken to the hospital. But police said initial reports suggested two people on an airport ground vehicle were confirmed dead.
Photos taken after the accident showed the cargo aircraft partially submerged in water near the airport’s sea wall with an escape slide deployed and the nose and tail sections separated.
The northern runway has been closed, the airport said, adding the south and central runways would continue to operate.
Flightradar24 said the aircraft that went off the runway in Hong Kong was a Boeing 747 freighter.
The flight-tracking service posted on X that the aircraft belonged to AirACT, a Turkish airline that provides extra cargo capacity to major carriers. It was flying from Dubai for Emirates SkyCargo, with the flight number EK9788.
Emirates said in a statement that flight EK9788, a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft wet-leased from and operated by ACT Airlines, sustained damage on landing in Hong Kong on Monday, adding that “crew are confirmed to be safe and there was no cargo onboard.”
Edited by: Rana Taha
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