The main wreckage of a cargo plane that skidded off a runway and plunged into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport has been recovered, nearly a week after the deadly crash that killed two airport workers.
Salvage crews on Sunday lifted the front section of the Boeing 747 operated by Turkey-based ACT Airlines from the water, carefully hoisting it onto a recovery vessel after several hours of work. The operation followed days of underwater sonar surveys and partial retrievals of other components, including the tail section, which was recovered on Friday.
The aircraft, leased to Emirates and flying from Dubai, veered off the runway during landing last Monday, smashing through fencing before colliding with a security patrol vehicle. The impact sent both the plane and the vehicle into the sea. Two security personnel in the car were killed, while all four crew members on board the aircraft escaped unharmed.
According to airport authorities, the runway was temporarily closed during the recovery efforts. Both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered and sent to a laboratory for analysis.
Representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Turkey’s Transport Safety Investigation Center, and Boeing are assisting Hong Kong’s Air Accident Investigation Authority, which said a preliminary report would be issued within a month.
Steven Yiu, the Airport Authority’s executive director for operations, said initial findings showed that weather and runway conditions met safety standards at the time of the crash.
“Mechanical and human factors are still under investigation,” he said.
Yiu explained that airport controllers had issued correct landing instructions and that all runway signs and markings were in place. He noted that the plane had veered off course, breached the perimeter fence, and crashed into the patrol vehicle traveling along a road outside the runway.
“Normally, the plane is not supposed to turn towards the sea,” Yiu said during a post-crash news conference, adding that the patrol vehicle had been operating in its designated area and did not enter the runway.
The accident is the deadliest to occur at Hong Kong International Airport in more than 25 years. Investigators are now examining whether a mechanical malfunction or pilot error caused the aircraft to deviate from its landing path.