Kai Tak Airport
Once the pattern was sighted and identified, the aircraft made a low-altitude (sub-600 ft; 180 m) 47-degree right-hand turn, ending with a short final approach and touchdown.[11] A 2001 Environmental Study recommended that a new memorial be erected for the Sung Wong Toi rock and other remnants of the Kowloon area before Kai Tak.[12] It was also the location of HMS Nabcatcher, a Royal Navy Mobile Operational Naval Air Base, (MONAB) VIII, which was situated here between 1945 and 1947.At the end of December, HMS Flycatcher was officially decommissioned at Kai Tak, although the Royal Navy retained lodger rights until 1978.[15] Bristol Britannia 102s took over BOAC's London-Tokyo flights in the summer of 1957 and were the largest airliners scheduled to the old airport (Boeing Stratocruisers never flew there).In the 1970s, the airport's increasing traffic and growth of high-density developments around it raised concerns about the potential loss of life should a crash occur, though no serious accidents happened throughout its history of operations.This caused serious noise and engine pollution for nearby residents and put height restrictions, which were removed after Kai Tak closed.The new airport is located far away from Hong Kong's main residential areas, conducive to minimising the dangers of a major crash and also reducing the nuisance of noise pollution.Below were the final flights of Kai Tak: With the ferry flight's takeoff to Chek Lap Kok, a ceremony celebrating the end of the airport was held inside the control tower, with then-director of civil aviation Richard Siegel, giving a brief speech; he ended with the words "Goodbye Kai Tak, and thank you", before dimming the lights briefly and then turning them off.But by the end of the first week these challenges, and other teething problems, were largely resolved, and the new airport was exceeding Kai Tak performance measures.[citation needed] The Kai Tak passenger terminal later housed government offices, automobile dealerships and showrooms, gaming arcades, a mall, shopping centers, a go-kart racecourse, a bowling alley, a snooker hall, a mini-golf range and other recreational facilities.[25] The Hong Kong stop of Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love World Tour was held on the airport's apron on 25 January 1999.[citation needed] BMW used to test its hydrogen cars on the former Kai Tak apron area,[26] while a golf course was set up at the end of Runway 31.[citation needed] The Kai Tak airport consisted of a linear passenger terminal building with a car park attached at the rear.[citation needed] Other tenants included: The landing approach for planes using runway 13 at Kai Tak was considered spectacular and was infamous, not just amongst aviation enthusiasts but amongst the general public as well.Approaching aircraft then had to make a right-hand U-turn to intercept the localiser for the Runway 13 IGS, which generally happened above the current Chek Lap Kok Airport site.Upon reaching the small hill above Kowloon Tsai Park, which was painted with a large "aviation orange" and white checkerboard (22°20′06″N 114°11′04″E / 22.33500°N 114.18444°E / 22.33500; 114.18444 (Checkerboard Hill)), used as a visual reference point on the final approach (in addition to the middle marker on the Instrument Guidance System), the pilot needed to make a 47° visual right turn to line up with the runway and complete the final leg.[29] Handling the runway 13 approach was difficult enough with normal crosswinds because, even if the wind direction was constant, it was changing relative to the aircraft as the plane made the 47° visual right turn, meaning that what would be a headwind heading directly east on the IGS would become a crosswind and begin to push the aircraft over and off the runway alignment without correction.Watching large aircraft banking at low altitudes and taking big crab angles during their final approaches was popular with plane spotters.The approach path towards the runway from the southeast passed within 300 metres (980 ft) of Heng Fa Chuen on Hong Kong Island.There were also proposals to dredge the runway to form several islands for housing, to build a terminal capable of accommodating cruise ships the size of Queen Mary 2, and more recently, to house the Hong Kong Sports Institute, as well as several stadiums, in the case that the institute was forced to move so that the equestrian events of the 2008 Summer Olympics could be held at its present site in Sha Tin.On 9 January 2004, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that no reclamation plan for Victoria Harbour could be introduced unless it passed an "overriding public interest" test.[59] A new Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station, Kai Tak, opened on the former airport land on 14 February 2020 for phase one of the Tuen Ma line.
Panorama of the former Kai Tak Airport Site (2010)
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