BBC World Service and now Witness History with me, Gill Kearsley. Today I'm taking you back to 1998
and the last flight out of Hong Kong International Airport, known as Kai Tak. The runway is situated
in the middle of Victoria Harbor, surrounded by mountains on three sides. Pilots have to make a
hair-raising descent through the skyscrapers of Kowloon, making it world-renowned.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Captain Sharman. Welcome aboard our Flight 251 to
London Heathrow. As you may be aware, this is the last commercial flight out of Kai Tak. We should
be closing immediately after we get airborne. So we're all in this historic day together.
That's Captain Kim Sharman recalling what he said at the start of Cathay Pacific Flight
251 on 6 July, 1998, whilst piloting the last commercial flight to leave Kai Tak before the
airport closed down. The airport named after two Chinese businessmen, Mr Kai and Mr Tak,
was world famous for the thrilling landing that became known as the Kai Tak heart attack.
Here, it's described in the BBC television program The Air Show.
This is one of the most dramatic and spectacular landings in the world for passengers and pilots
alike. Just seconds before touchdown, the aircraft makes a 47 degree turn onto the
final runway heading. And at that moment, the passengers have an alarmingly close view over the
rooftops and the wingtip seems teasingly close to the network of washing lines. Yes, aviation
lovers of the world. You already know that this is Kai Tak International Airport, Hong Kong.
Kim estimates that he flew into Kai Tak about four times a month for 23
years. That's more than a thousand landings.
It was a monumental piece of engineering,
747s swooping over a street. They look, indeed they are very, very low.
But it was all legal. It was unique. I've been racking my brain trying to think of another
airport with those degree of difficulties, though there weren't any. It involved a fairly
interesting approach because you had to fly down what's known as an instrument landing system,
an ILS. But normally with an ILS, that takes you right down to the ground.
This one stops at about 500 feet, 600 feet and then you had to do a 43 degree turn to the right
to line up with the runway, because if you carried on, you'd have hit Lion Rock as is it's known. So
called, because if you look at this mountain above Kai Tak in profile it looks like a lion's head.
To mark the turning point there was a famous bit of the hill painted in red
and white panels and that was known as a checkerboard. Now all this, of course,
is visual, so you couldn't really do it in poor weather. So it did have its limitations.
On a good day. It was a privilege to do it. It really was.
Can you remember your first flight in there?
Yes, I can. I was in the Fleet Air Arm at the time, and strangely enough, I've got my logbook
with me. It was on the 14th of October, 1971 in the Sea Vixen. And actually, we did a flypast for
Princess Anne's visit. And we went around to the south of the island, joined up in formation and
came flying down the harbour and I remember looking up and seeing skyscrapers above me
and going past this building, which has hundreds of round windows in it,
the Chinese know it locally as the building of a thousand holes.
Then we went round the south of the island again and we went hurtling past.
Kim's flypast as a pilot in the British Royal Navy was his first flight into
contact. But how did he find out that he was to be the captain of that last flight?
Well, we had a system whereby we could request certain flights and I thought it'd be nice to
request that flight. Cathay 251. Of course, I discovered there were several who were after
that as well for the prestige. They'd actually given it to me and this management guy was trying
to grab it off me. My manager went up, went to bat for me and it all established itself.
And I found out who it was at a Cathay reunion. So I just went up to him and I said,
'I know.' He said, 'What do you know?' and I said, 'I know you tried to steal that flight from me.'
Having fought off the competition to pilot the flight, on July 5,
Kim went for a walk to take in the sights and sounds of Hong Kong,
knowing it may be his last time exploring the streets near the airport. He then went to work.
It was a midnight departure and it was noticeable approaching Kai Tak how empty it was.
Not surprising but it was very noticeable, going to terminal south.
Of course, this would be about an hour and 15 minutes before a scheduled departure.
There was only two or three check-in desks working because this was the only flight, so it was empty
and already there were trolley cars going past with bits and pieces of infrastructure on them
and already you could sense that the thing was closing down. So I walked through, got briefed
through security and then to the airport itself. It was full of press,
full of management. It was like walking through a church I suppose. An abandoned,
empty building which had once been so bustling. It just felt cold and empty. It was
very, very bizarre. All these lorries and things, chuntering off to the airport
full of equipment. And that really did drive it home that this was it. This was the last one.
By 1996, Kai Tak was handling around 30 million passengers and one and a half million tonnes
of cargo. It was the third busiest airport in the world for passengers and first for cargo.
Squeezed between buildings in rugged mountains and
surrounded by bustling streets, there was no room for expansion.
So the new airport was built on an island in the South China Sea. But Kai Tak will be missed.
Passengers with seats on the very last flights were well aware they were making aviation history.
We've been here 15 years now, so
we've been through this place a number of times. It's great to be here on the last day.
It's almost like saying goodbye to our old friend, but always we are excited to see the new airport.
Kim spent his last moments on the ground at Kai Tak talking to the press.
We were being interviewed, I think. There's myself and the other two guys and we were both
being interviewed and I suddenly realised, oh my Lord, there's an aircraft full of passengers. So
I sent the second officer, I said 'Go, you better get back up to the aircraft quickly.' Overall,
I'm still captain of the aircraft, I'm still responsible for all the people.
Kim finished the interviews, climbed the steps to the cockpit and prepared for takeoff.
Thousands of people had gathered on the streets to see the last
commercial plane out of Kai Tak take off at two minutes past midnight.
I can remember on the radio when we when we left,
I said 'Goodbye Kai Tak' or something like that that's and then they switched the lights out.
It's a curious mixture of being professional and doing a demanding job and sentimentality.
One of the world's best known airports, Kai Tak in Hong Kong, has closed after more than 60 years.
12 and a half hours later landed in London. I took my badges off and
never flew again. That was my retirement flight. Not a bad way to finish is it?
Captain Kim Sharman was speaking to me, Gill Kearsley, for that edition of Witness History.