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Hong Kong International Airport, popularly known as Kai Tak Airport (Chinese language|Chinese ???????????? Pinyin: Q??d??, WG: Ch'i-te) was the international airport of Hong Kong until July 6, 1998. Having the IATA airport code HKG as well as the ICAO airport code VHHH, both of which were taken over as codes for the Hong Kong International Airport|new airport of the same name, the famous airport served as Cathay Pacific's, Dragonair's and Air Hong Kong's hub. It also has the ICAO code VHKT as the RAF Kai Tak|RAF air base. Kai Tak was located in the north of Kowloon Bay in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The vicinity was surrounded by rugged mountains. Less than 10 km to the north and northeast was a range of hills reaching an altitude of 2000 ft. To the east of the runway, the hills were less than 5 km away. Immediately to the south of the airport was the Victoria Harbour, and further south was Hong Kong Island with hills up to 1700 ft. There was only one runway at Kai Tak, oriented at 135 degrees and 315 degrees, hence its name 13/31. The runway was made by reclaiming land from the harbour and had been extended several times since its initial construction. Final length of the runway was 3390m. Landing at Kai Tak could be both challenging and spectacular. Depending on the landing direction, the aircraft might need to pass over densely populated areas in Kowloon at low altitude. At the northern end of the runway, buildings up to 6 storeys tall rose just across the road. The other three sides of the runway were surrounded by the harbour. Aircraft were literally landing in the harbour within the city; some passengers claimed they could even see the flicker of televisions through apartment windows as they landed. As well as the difficult and potentially dangerous landing, Hong Kong's growth stretched the airport's capacity. The airport was designed to handle 24 million passengers per year but it typically went over 28 million, plus 1.5 million tonnes of freight during its final years. The airport ran out of landing slots and parking bays, and flights had to be turned away. Moreover, the clearance requirements for aircraft takeoffs and landings enforced a limit on the height of the buildings that could be built on expensive Kowloon real estate. The airport caused serious noise pollution for nearby residents. A night curfew from midnight to about 6:30 in the early morning also hindered operations. As a result, in the late 1980s, the Hong Kong Government began searching for alternative locations for a new airport in Hong Kong to replace the ageing airport. After deliberating on a number of locations including the southside of Hong Kong Island the government settled for the island of Chek Lap Kok off Lantau Island. A huge number of resources were mobilised to build this new airport; part of ten programmes in Hong Kong's Airport Core Programme. The airport officially opened on 6 July 1998; and in a remarkable testament to logistical planning, all airport supplies and vehicles were transported to Chek Lap Kok in one early morning with a single massive move, after the last plane touched down at Kai Tak at 1:28 am, and before the first plane arrived at 6:25 am. Kai Tak was subsequently retired, transferring its IATA Airport Code to the replacement airport at Chek Lap Kok. The story of Kai Tak started in 1924. The location of Kai Tak belonged to two plutocrats Ho Kai and Au Tak, who owned the land before the government acquired it (the land originally did not have a name), which explains the name of the airport. First planned as an estate site, the land was given to the government after the plan failed. Soon, it became a small airport for the Royal Air Force, flying clubs and pilot training centre. In 1936, the first domestic airline in Hong Kong was established. Hong Kong fell into the hands of the Japanese in 1941 during World War II. In 1943 the Japanese army extended Kai Tak and built an additional runway which extended across Clear Water Bay Road. During the process, they destroyed the historic wall of the Kowloon Walled City, as well as the 45 m (148 ft) tall Sung Wong Toi — a memorial for the last Song dynasty emperor. Japan surrendered shortly after the completion of the second runway in 1945. An official plan to modify Kai Tak to a modern airport was released in 1954. In 1957, the original runways were replaced by a new NW/SE heading 2194 m runway extending into the Kowloon Bay completed by land reclamation. The runway was extended to 2529 m in 1970 and again to 3390 m in 1975. In 1962, the passenger terminal was completed and Kai Tak became an international airport. An Instrument Guidance System (IGS) was installed in 1974 to aid landing on runway 13. Utilization of the airport under adverse conditions was greatly increased. At its beginning, Kai Tak was "far away" from residental areas, but as both residental areas and the airport expanded, Kai Tak became too close to the residental areas. There were many talks about a new airport but no plan really worked out due to various reasons. Finally in 1990, to boost the confidence of the population in the future of Hong Kong after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the Hong Kong government decided to go ahead with the so-called "Rose Garden Plan" of which the Chek Lap Kok International Airport was the centrepiece. On July 7 1998 at 1:28 am, Kai Tak was finally retired as an airport. The passenger terminal was eventually transformed into government offices, automobile dealerships, a go kart racecourse, snooker, recreational facilities, a bowling alley, car sales showrooms and a golf range. By December 2003 and January 2004, the passenger terminal was dismantled. Many aviation enthusiasts were upset at the demise of Kai Tak because of the unique approach. As private aviation is not allowed at Chek Lap Kok, some enthusiasts had lobbied to keep around 1 km of the Kai Tak runway for general aviation. Image:HK Harbor Airport Landsat.jpg|right|thumb|On this satellite photo, the narrow strip of land in the North East extending into the sea is the runway of Kai Tak. To the North, East and South are mountains. The landing approach using runway 13 at Kai Tak was spectacular and world-famous. To land on runway 13, an aircraft first took a descent heading northeast. The aircraft would pass over the crowded harbour, and then the very densely populated areas on Western Kowloon. This leg of the approach was guided by an IGS (Instrument Guidance System, a modified ILS) after 1974. Upon reaching a small hill marked with a checkerboard in red and white, the pilot needed to make a 47?? visual right turn to line up with the runway and complete the final leg. The aircraft would be just two nautical miles from touchdown, at a height of less than 1000 ft when the turn was made. Typically the plane would enter the final right turn at the height of about 650 ft and exit it at the height of 140 ft to line up with the runway. Landing the 13 approach would become even more challenging when crosswinds from the northeast were strong and gusty during typhoons. From a spectator's point of view, watching fully-loaded Boeing 747s banking at low altitudes and taking big crab angles during their final approaches was quite the thrill. Despite the difficulty, it was nonetheless used most of the time due to the prevailing wind direction in Hong Kong. Another challenge for the landing is the relatvely short runway for large aircraft and also the location and orientation of the runway, which extends from Kowloon City into Kowloon Bay, with 3 sides surrounded by water. Consequently, aircraft must land accurately at the landing spot at where the runway starts or face the risk of overrunning the runway and end up in the sea. Despite its challenging approach and mountainous geographical surroundings, there were relatively few accidents at Kai Tak. Some of the most serious accidents at Kai Tak during its seventy years of service were:
(If Project Bojinka had not been discovered after a fire in Manila, Philippines, one or more aircraft owned by a United States|U.S. carrier/s flying from this airport might have blown up over the Pacific Ocean on January 21, 1995 as part of the project's first phase.) (The world's first commercial plane hijacked, a Catalina operated by a Cathay Pacific subsidiary, was also bound to Hong Kong. Shortly after take-off in Macao on July 16, 1948, four armed hijackers entered the cockpit. The hijackers shot the pilot, whose wounded body fell onto the control stick, causing the plane to crash into the sea. 26 were killed; only the hijack leader survived.) Currently the harbour-facing tip of the runway is used as a golf driving range. There are plans for the site of Kai Tak to be used for housing development, which was once projected to house around 240,000-340,000 residents. Due to calls from the public to protect the harbour and participate more deeply in future town planning, the scale and plan of the project are yet to be decided. There will also be a railway station and maintenance centre in the proposed plan for the Shatin to Central Link. There are also proposals to dredge the runway forming several islands built with housing on, to build a terminal accommodating cruise ships size of Queen Mary 2, and more recently, to house the Hong Kong Sports Institute as well as several stadiums in case it is forced to move, due to concerns that the equestrian events of the 2008 Summer Olympics may be held at the institute's present site in Sha Tin.
Category:Kowloon City District Category:Airports in Hong Kong de:Flughafen Kai Tak fr:A??roport international Kai Tak ja:???????????? zh:???????????? This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kai Tak Airport".
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