Hong Kong (Circa 1985): Flying into the original Hong Kong airport was an experience everyone remembers... especially if you had not been forewarned...
During the course of my career, I've been fortunate enough to travel to many interesting places. Sometime around the mid-1980s, my employer sent me to visit a customer in Hong Kong. At that time planes landed at what was then called Hong Kong International Airport.
As an aside, this was originally known as Kai Tak Airport, which first opened in 1925. It was renamed Hong Kong International Airport in 1954 and stayed that way until 1998, at which time it was replaced by the new Hong Kong International Airport located at Chek Lap Kok.
Kai Tak was located on the north side of Kowloon Bay in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The main runway, which was oriented southeast/northwest, jutted out onto reclaimed land in the harbor. The vicinity was (and still is, of course) surrounded by rugged mountains, and there were numerous skyscrapers located to the north of the airport.
The low-altitude maneuver required to land a big plane at the airport was spectacular to say the least (especially if one had not been forewarned by one's so-called friends). Here's the way it went...
We were arriving sometime in the late afternoon to early evening. The captain announced that we were commencing our decent. I was in a window seat reading a book. At some stage I happened to glance out of the window and...
GOOD GRIEF! The plane was lower than the tops of the skyscrapers passing by my window! I could see folks eating their supper or watching television. Surely we shouldn't be this low...
I thought we were about to crash... and then, just as this thought passed through my mind, the plane turned on its side – one wing pointing to the ground and the other pointing to the heavens...
My heart was in my mouth. The plane did an excruciatingly sharp 90-degree turn (the G-forces pressing all of the passengers deep into their seats) ... then it leveled out and, almost immediately, the wheels touched the ground.
As soon as the wheels touched down the flaps went up, the engines screamed with reverse thrust, and all of the passengers jerked forward and had their faces pressed into the headrests of the seats in front of them as the plane screeched to a halt only inches from the sea at the end of the runway (OK, the "inches" part is something of an exaggeration, but that's what it felt like and the rest is true).
I looked around. No one else on the plane had blinked an eye. They were obviously "old hands" at this and knew what to expect. As for me ... I left the plane feeling at least ten years older than when I had happily taken my seat at the start of the day!
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