Cathay aborts Hong Kong take-off.

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  • cwoodward
    Participant

    Cathay and agencies are reporting that nine people suffered minor injuries on Cathay Pacific’s (0293.HK) flight CX880 at Hong Kong when the aircraft aborted take-off airport early on Saturday due to a technical issue, after Cathay said in a statement this morning.
    All of the injured were hospitalised and all but 2 immediately discharged.

    It seems that the flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles was carrying 17 crew and 293 passengers. It aborted take-off after a technical issue was detected by the flight crew.”

    The minor injuries were caused it seems when passengers were exiting down emergency slides.to Los Angeles was carrying 17 crew and 293 passengers.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    stevescoots
    Participant

    I was in HKG yesterday morning, the plane in question was at Bay 2/3 all packed up by the time looking out at it from the Wing lounge when i got there at midday. Had coffee with some of my CX friends and according to them the majority of injuries were caused by passengers getting bags from overheads and either dropping them on people or people falling trying to get out, only an handful were caused on the slide (one a fractured hip) I note elsewhere some commentators questioning why use slides when a tug brought it back to the gate. Company safety policy is there was fire risk as the tech fault so fastest evac is policy

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    cwoodward
    Participant

    It seems to me likely that the burst tyres were a result of the pilot applying emergency breaking not the cause of the aborted take-off which appears to have been (from discussing with my pilot neighbour) a false indication of a potentially serious technical issue.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    FinnKZ229
    Participant

    It seems that, yet again, passengers were taking their hand baggage with them down the emergency chutes.

    https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3225238/11-injured-cathay-pacific-flight-departing-hong-kong-after-tyre-bursts-and-take-aborted?module=lead_hero_story&pgtype=homepage

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    I have always wondered with a real life emergency evacuation whether a “large” aircraft could be evacuated in the stipulated 90 seconds only using half the exits. Panicing passengers will not act rationally. I have never had such an occurence so would be interested others views. I always looked to see where the nearest emergency exit was


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    I am always shocked to see passengers leaving an aircraft in an emergency with their carry on luggage.

    Would be interested to hear, what the protocol is for returning belongings from an aircraft that needed to be evacuated. Are we talking hours, days, weeks or months. How would you be treated by immigration had you evacuated an aircraft and left all your travel documents on board.

    For the point of the question, I am only talking about the type of evacuation as described by an aborted takeoff for example.

    Has anyone been is a similar situation and left all belongings on the aircraft?


    stevescoots
    Participant

    one reason i always fly with my passport, phone and one credit card in my pocket! i am getting out as fast as possible, leaving the bags and dont have to worry about what happens after as far as contacting loved ones, getting home etc

    7 users thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    Hong Kongs air accident watchdog has today issued a preliminary report on the incident.

    The cause of the aborted take-off was a discrepancy relating to the airspeed indicated on the flight deck, the report read.
    It seems universally accepted within the industry that the pilot had no choice but to abort the take-off.

    Interestingly however, the temperatures in the gear brakes were found to be increasing, and the tires were deflating as the aircraft taxied back towards its parking stand and it is this that was the cause of the evacuation. At that point fire in the left main landing gear was seen by crew members through a monitoring system after an explosion was heard and severe vibration was felt on board.There was then a need to quickly evacuate the aircraft. The evacuation began and the crew immediately alerted the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and requested support, the report said.

    It seems that seems at first pass that all concerned acted properly to ensure that passengers were safe and probably no fault will be found with ether the pilot or the crews actions.

    The final report will be some months away.


    FDOS
    Participant

    Martyn, sadly, I am not surprised to see pax carrying luggage off the aircraft in an evac. They just do not get why not! 🙁

    “Interestingly however, the temperatures in the gear brakes were found to be increasing, and the tires were deflating as the aircraft taxied back towards its parking stand and it is this that was the cause of the evacuation. ”

    From my time consulting at big airways and listening to widebody pilots, this is far from unusual – the energy the brakes absorb (and convert to heat) is huge and brake fires often the result – IIRC the tyres have plugs that are designed to fail, to avoid explosions.

    It sounds as if it must have been a high speed reject, to generate this amount of heat.

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    nevereconomy
    Participant

    Why I always insisted on shirts with a certain width pocket – carry your passport etc..no surprise with luggage on the chutes – from experience all these years most people flying are daft…


    cwoodward
    Participant

    Never e I cant agree with you……. but I liked the post. It reminded me of days in SA and Australia where we used to ware short sleeved shirts with a pocket – when flying I always put the pp in the shirt pocket.


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    I wonder how hard it would be to fit locks to the overhead lockers so that in an emergency they can’t be opened?

    I have an old amenity bag from MH which is the perfect size to hold all my docs, phone, essential meds etc. – in other words, everything I need to survive for a short period. That is in the seat pocket in front of me so I can just grab it and go. I also check that there *is* a life vest under my seat (or wherever), watch the part of the safety briefing which covers how the life vest works (clips / buckles / knots), and check where the exits are. So far I have never had to use any of this knowledge, and I hope I never have to. But if I see some twat opening overhead lockers in an emergency my response will be short and brutal, and if their fingers get damaged in the process that is very much their problem…

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    Stephen
    Participant

    Important thing to remember small incidents can cause a big problem at any time in flying. The aircraft had to suddenly evacuate as a fire was detected after a successful abort, so the slides were used, and the injuries were created due to passengers taking their hand carry with them!

    On a plane have a shirt or pockets to hold passport wallet and keep them on your person there is no chance to recover them if an evacuation is required. Normally the aircraft would have docked normally but must evacuate only due to a fire in the undercarriage being indicated. It turned out not to be serious, but the airline follows very safe procedures.

    The aborted take-off was due to a mismatch is air-speed indicators. Planes have taken off before and had skimmed buildings not being able to climb and one had crashed in Dubai as a result, so the procedures again were exemplary passenger safety being paramount. Easier to fix a sensor on the ground than flying at 30,000 feet!

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