Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
hong kong Officials were preparing Tuesday to reopen the runway where a cargo plane crashed a day earlier, but said it would remain out of regular use until debris from the crash was completely cleared.
The Boeing 747 was flown by Türkiye-based ACT Airlines. Dubai It slid left after landing early Monday and collided with a patrol car, causing both to fall into the sea. Two employees in the car were found dead, while the four crew members on board the plane had no apparent injuries.
Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director of airport operations, told Radio Television Hong Kong that repairs to the runway and damaged fencing had been completed. He said investigators have collected preliminary evidence from the scene.
But Yiu said the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have not yet been recovered.
Officials aimed to place the runway on standby status, meaning it can be used for landings but will no longer be included in regular flight plans as of Tuesday afternoon.
The aircraft was being operated under lease by Dubai-based long-haul carrier Emirates.
Yiu said the runway would remain on standby until the debris from the nearby sea was completely cleared.
He said Hong Kong authorities were in contact with barge companies to plan evacuations, but they could not begin removal work while Tropical Storm Fengshen was still affecting the city. He said the airport planned to complete the debris and car removal and other related work within a week depending on the weather.
Investigators will continue to collect evidence following the clearance as they continue to work to determine the cause of the crash.
Yiu said both weather and runway conditions were up to standards during the incident, while mechanical and human factors have yet to be investigated.
Monday’s crash is the second fatality for ACT Airlines. In 2017, a Boeing 747 flown by ACT Airlines under the name MyCargo crashed as it was preparing to land in fog in the capital Bishkek. KyrgyzstanAll four crew on board and 35 people on land were killed. ACT Airlines flies that route from Hong Kong Turkish Airlines,
A later report on the accident by Kyrgyz authorities blamed the flight crew for misjudging the aircraft’s position while landing in bad weather. The report said the crew was fatigued and that they had a heated argument with air-traffic control before the crash.