Turkish Airlines Aircraft Crash Lands at Kathmandu

[fountainhall]

A Turkish Airlines A330 aircraft with 238 people on board has crash landed at Nepal's Kathmandu airport. The aircraft from Istanbul had aborted a first landing in dense fog and then circled the airport for around 30 minutes before making its second attempt. Flightradar indicates it overshot the runway, landed heavily nose first, the front landing gear collapsed and the plane then nose-dived along the grass verge between the runway and taxiway before ending up in a field. No-one was seriously injured.

I've landed twice at Kathmandu. It's spectacular as the aircraft has to weave between various hills before lining up for the runway. But it's not in the same league of complexity as its neighbour Bhutan where the approach to Paro is considerably more hair-raising!

[youtube:r7y8oh51]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7czm9EjK8[/youtube:r7y8oh51]

[a447]

Remember Kaitak - or Kaitak heart attack, as it was called? The "Hong Kong Turn" required pilots to have a special licence to use the airport.

[fountainhall]

I landed at Kai Tak well over 150 times during the 19 years from my arrival in HKG to the airport's move in 1998. Once around 1993 I passed the airport and there in the water at the end of the runway was a one-month old Boeing 747-400 of China Airlines. The pilot had landed too far down the runway, skidded and all but written of a $150 million aircraft!


Doing that 90 degree turn when landing to the east, it seemed like the wing tips would hit the apartment blocks below. They never did! It used to be said that Cathay Pacific pilots could tell not only which apartments had television sets switched on but also the channels to which they were tuned!

More than the 90 degree turn, though, it was crosswinds that could made landing really hairy. You Tube has lots of vdos. This one is nice!!

[youtube:7y68hxks]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nehZ9v4YB6o[/youtube:7y68hxks]

[a447]

It used to be said that Cathay Pacific pilots could tell not only which apartments had television sets switched on but also the channels to which they were tuned!

And their washing hanging on the bamboo poles was dried instantly....lol

[fountainhall]

Alongside the highway that led from Kai Tak towards Hong Kong Island were several low cost housing estates. On a visit, the Queen's sister Princess Margaret, noticing all the washing hanging from the hundreds of poles, turned to the Governor of Hong Kong and remarked in her always snooty voice, "How kind of the people to put out the bunting for me!"