A cargo jet arriving from Dubai skidded off a runway and plunged into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early Monday, killing two ground staff in one of the city’s deadliest aviation accidents in years.
Authorities said the Emirates-operated Boeing 747-481 cargo plane, flying as EK9788, veered off the runway shortly after landing at about 3:50 a.m. local time. The aircraft collided with an airport patrol vehicle before breaking apart as it slipped through a perimeter fence and into the waters off Chek Lap Kok.
Both occupants of the patrol vehicle — men aged 30 and 41, with seven and twelve years of airport experience respectively — were found dead by divers. The plane’s four crew members survived, escaping through emergency exits before being rescued by fire service officers within minutes.
At a press briefing, Steven Yiu, the airport’s executive director of operations, said the patrol vehicle “was traveling outside the runway fence at a safe distance” when the cargo plane suddenly turned off course. “Normally, the aircraft is not supposed to turn towards the sea,” he said, adding that the plane sent no distress signal before impact.
Emirates confirmed that the plane, which was wet-leased and operated by Turkey’s ACT Airlines, was not carrying cargo at the time. “Crew are confirmed to be safe,” the airline said in a statement.
Photographs from the scene showed the aircraft split nearly in half, with its nose and fuselage partially submerged in the shallow waters beyond the tarmac. One evacuation slide appeared to have deployed successfully.
The Hong Kong Air Accident Investigation Authority has opened an inquiry and is searching for the aircraft’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders — the so-called black boxes — in the surrounding waters. Police said criminal negligence has not been ruled out.
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Operations on one of the airport’s three runways have been suspended, while at least eleven incoming cargo flights were canceled.
The crash marks only the second fatal incident at Hong Kong International Airport since its 1998 relocation from Kai Tak. The last deadly accident occurred in 1999, when a China Airlines jet crash-landed during a typhoon, killing three.
