Funny in its own way. Luck was on the passengers side as it was only a short hop.

(Written on 2020/12/24)(Permalink)

Yup, it was still Kai Tak then. If ThinkingGuy landed around noon, there would be an abundance of N-reg'ed 744s. In the evenings, the European carriers would occupy the tarmac. I could still recall arriving during the day and we had to park way way away from the terminal. Between the plane and the terminal, we would pass by 747s one after the other.

(Written on 2020/10/16)(Permalink)

Quite true. During that era, most of the Asian airlines invested heavily in the 747, particularly the 744. These included Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, JAL. Because of all that demand, Asian airlines were using 744 even for short/regional hauls. It was not uncommon to see a 744 flying 4 segments or more a day.

(Written on 2020/10/15)(Permalink)

From the photo of the starboard wing and engine I did not see any very visible drag marks on the runway behind the plane. The flight crew must have realised the gear failure and tried to keep the wing up while the place slowed down. That's some interesting combination of objectives.

(Written on 2020/02/14)(Permalink)

I did not know this, but doesn't the U.S. have quite a few of these, like in Arizona, Nevada, parts of Texas ? It makes little sense to me for Boeing to make a "high-volume" aircraft that cannot even serve the domestic market properly.

(Written on 2019/06/28)(Permalink)

I was wondering how much work or cost it will take to put each plane back into the air when (OK, I'm optimistic here, so I'm not using "if") they have been upgraded. Commercial jets are really designed these days to be flying around and not sitting around in a parking lot (or a corner of the airfield) for such an extended period of time. It's not as bad as taking a plane out of mothball but it must cost quite a bit.

(Written on 2019/06/28)(Permalink)

Humorous that it may have seemed, I am most saddened to come to my conclusion, that while there were mistakes with Operations, the worst part of the story is that neither the flight crew nor the cabin crew really cared about what they do anymore. How could it be that none of them spotted the error, none knew where they were supposed to fly to, despite given some instructions by Operations ? Didn't the cabin crew know what the flight number was (assuming they thought they were going to Edinburgh), and that the boarding passes had a different one on it ? Did the flight deck even had a moment of pre-flight briefing wit the cabin crew ? Did anyone know their work itinerary for that that day ?

(Written on 2019/03/29)(Permalink)

I am curious. The objective of a pressurised cabin is to maintain the inside pressure at a level that a human can feel comfortable in. Shouldn't there be a specific pressure setting on the controls instead just pumping air into the cabin and hope someone pressed the other button to let some air out ? Even something as mundane as an air conditioner has a temperature control.

(Written on 2018/10/18)(Permalink)

Perhaps for United passenger flights, but there still very many 747 freighters hauling all sorts of stuff around world everyday and I doubt they will be gone anytime soon.

(Written on 2017/10/20)(Permalink)

I live in Hong Kong, and on that morning, I was curious to see what activity was still left at HKG. So I logged into one of the tracking websites, and there was ZERO activity on the ground in HKG. No call signs at all, not a single plane was marked. It was pretty much the same in the airspace south of Hong Kong which is normally quite busy with flight heading back and forth along the coast (and not wanting to fly inside China's airspace). Then I saw this lone plane entering this isolated patch, and it was the KLM flight. I followed it and as it approached 07L I was sitting upright to see if it would really land. Due the delay in reflecting the correct position, for about 30 seconds, the plane seemed to have overshot the runway, and then the position was updated and it was actually on the ground. A quick check on the airport's website a minute later confirmed it landed. Even watching it on a computer was a little tense that morning.

(Written on 2017/09/01)(Permalink)