Over the years, legendary airports were constructed, flourished and sometimes also vanished. Without any doubt, Kai Tak will always be remembered for its challenging airspace approach path towards runway 13. This procedure led aircraft on their intermediate and final approach segments at dazzling height above rooftops over the former ‘British Dependent Territory’, offering spectacular sights from the city and the aircraft alike.
From an airport perspective, Kai Tak was situated between the city to the west, considerable mountains to the north and the Victoria harbour to the south. In its final phase of operations (until 1998), the airport featured a 3,390 metres long RWY with orientation 13-31. Kai Tak was frequented by airlines in the Asian and Australian region as well as a very significant share of European and American airlines. Given the limited capacity of the Kai Tak infrastructure (in terms of apron and runway) and the high passenger demand for Hong Kong, many wide body aircraft were used to accommodate as many passengers per air traffic movement as possible.
In terms of the airspace, the aforementioned challenging approach segments towards runway 13 were part of the ‘instrument guidance system approach’ (IGS) in place for the respective runway. This procedure was a non-precision approach, defined by navaids (radio beacons) but also characterised by the visual cue of the famous checkerboard towards short final.
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