The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) is investigating an incident in which Shenzhen Airlines flight ZX9041 apparently took an unplanned detour on Sunday morning, passing over the Big Buddha and nearly colliding with another plane.
According to the Aviation Herald, the Airbus A320 (registration number B-6749) was about to land at Hong Kong airport when its crew suddenly decided to do an “unexpected 360” at a dangerously low altitude, against the instructions of air traffic controllers.
Air traffic controllers reportedly told another plane which was departing Hong Kong to stop climbing at 3,000 feet immediately to avoid a collision. The departing flight was not identified.
A citizen who witnessed flight ZH9041’s diversion estimated that it was flying at an altitude of about 3,000 feet near the Big Buddha statue, which was later confirmed by radar data. The minimum safe altitude for the area is 4,300 feet.
Minimum safe altitude requires planes to fly at least 1,000 feet above all objects located within a 46-kilometre, or 25 nautical-mile radius, whereas the Airbus was only 481 feet above the Big Buddha.
Far be it from us to begrudge somebody a “scenic route”, but let’s keep them to the ground… you know, where there are clearly marked roads.
Following the “unexpected 360”, flight ZH9041 finally climbed to a safe altitude of 6,000 feet, then landed at HKIA about 20 minutes after embarking on its impromptu detour.
A spokesperson for the CAD said there was “plenty of space” between the planes, RTHK reports, but confirmed that it would be looking into the incident, and has also requested a report from Shenzhen Airlines.
Peter Lok, former director of the CAD, told the SCMP that it was hard to tell why the Shenzhen Airlines pilot decided to abort the landing, “but there are proper procedures to follow”.
By that, we assume he means not ignoring well-established safety measures that are designed to stop planes from crashing into each other.
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