CAAC Flight 301
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CAAC Flight 301, a
Hawker Siddeley Trident The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident (originally the de Havilland DH.121 and briefly the Airco DH.121) is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (B ...
operated by
CAAC The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; ) is the Chinese civil aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents. As the aviation authority responsible fo ...
Guangzhou Regional Administration (now
China Southern Airlines China Southern Airlines Company Limited is an airline headquartered in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province and is the largest airline in China. Established on 1 July 1988 following the restructuring of ...
) from Guangzhou Baiyun to Hong Kong Kai Tak, ran off the runway in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
on 31 August 1988 after clipping approach lights. This was the first accident of China Southern Airlines since the split of CAAC Airlines from 1 July 1988. Six crew members and one passenger perished in the accident. The crash shut down Kai Tak Airport for more than six hours after the accident. Chinese plane crashes in Hong Kong harbor
" ''
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'' at ''
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'' (
New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...
). Thursday 1 September 1988. p. D8. Retrieved from
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on April 9, 2013.


Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a British built Hawker Siddeley Trident 2E, powered by three Rolls-Royce Spey 512-5W, The first flight was in 1973, Total air frame hours were 14,332, C/n /msn 2159. Registration was B-2218.


Accident sequence

While on final approach to Kai Tak Airport, in rain with visibility, the right wing of the
Hawker Siddeley Trident The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident (originally the de Havilland DH.121 and briefly the Airco DH.121) is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (B ...
operating the flight clipped approach lights of
Runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...
31 and the main landing gear tyres hit the runway
promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the so ...
, causing the right main landing gear to be ripped from the wing. The aircraft then became airborne and impacted the runway 600 metres further on. The aircraft then veered off the runway to the right and diagonally crossed the grassed runway strip surrounding it. The nose and left main landing gear then collapsed and the aircraft slid over the parallel
taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...
and into
Kowloon Bay Kowloon Bay is a body of water within Victoria Harbour and an area within Kowloon, Hong Kong. The bay is located at the east of the Kowloon Peninsula and north of Hong Kong Island. It is the eastern portion of Victoria Harbour, between ...
. The cockpit was cut off and the rest of the aircraft was intact. Attempts were made by divers to get to the cockpit where the flight crew were stationed but were unsuccessful, the cockpit crew were injured by the impact but autopsies showed that the cause of death was from drowning.


Passengers

Of the 89 occupants of the aircraft, seven died and an additional 15 received injuries. Of the dead, six were crew members and one was a
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
passenger who succumbed to his injuries in a hospital. The dead crew members were in the front of the aircraft. Three crew members, all Chinese, received injuries and survived. Of the 12 American passengers, two received injuries. Seven Hong Kong passengers, two Taiwanese passengers, and one Frenchman received injuries. One injured passenger was a Chinese-American.


Investigation

The report noted "From the limited evidence available it was not possible to positively determine the cause of the accident. The report concludes that the final approach became unstable, and that
windshear Wind shear (or windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical or horizonta ...
may have been a contributory factor. The final deviation below the normal approach path was probably due to a sudden reduction and distortion of the visual reference caused by heavy rain."


References


External links


Final Accident ReportArchive
Civil Aviation Department A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles ...

See entry at the HKU Library
{{coord, 22.3287, 114.1944, display=title 1988 in Hong Kong CAAC accidents and incidents Accidents and incidents involving the Hawker Siddeley Trident Aviation accidents and incidents in 1988 Aviation accidents and incidents in Hong Kong August 1988 events in Asia