Flight CAL 605 from Taipei touched down at 11.37am, when the Storm Sign Quantity 3 was in pressure and Kai Tak was shrouded in fog and being lashed by heavy rain.

The Hong Kong common supervisor for China Airways, Alex Liu Nai-heng, learn a press release saying: “On the time, the runway was saturated with rainwater and there have been sturdy crosswinds, making the floor very slippery.

“The airplane slipped off the runway and … fell into the ocean.”

Later he stated: “In response to the captain, simply after he touched down … he felt he couldn’t make a whole cease.

“He used the brakes, he used the reverse thrust. He tried his greatest, however he couldn’t cease the plane.”

The pilot had reached the top of the runway and veered left to gradual the airplane and attempt to keep away from dashing over the runway edge.

“If the airplane had carried on … it might have been quite a bit worse,” Mr Liu stated.

Captain Liu, 47, was a Taiwanese Air Pressure veteran and has been flying for China Airways for 10 years and is now an teacher.

Aviation consultants stated crosswinds might make a airplane unsteady in its ultimate strategy and will trigger velocity adjustments of as much as 150km/h.

Solely 23 folks reported accidents within the accident.

A 47-year-old girl and 45-year-old man had been admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in truthful situation.

The others had been taken to hospital after clambering down the jet’s security chutes and had been launched after therapy.

The injured and the opposite 273 passengers and crew had been rescued inside about half-hour of the crash.

The primary of 12 fireplace engines, two fireplace boats and 9 ambulances and greater than 150 rescuers arrived only one minute from the alarm being raised.

The airplane had gone in nose-first, and after bobbing on the ocean, was turned again in direction of the runway wall, enabling most individuals to clamber immediately ashore.

The others had been loaded in police rafts and ferried to the financial institution.

Newspaper vendor Ng Yuk-wan, who was working simply 250 metres from the top of the runway, stated she noticed the airplane roll off the tarmac into the water.

“It was very onerous to see so I believe possibly they [the pilots] didn’t know or see the place the top of the runway was,” she stated.

Nevertheless, the corporate moved rapidly to defend Captain Liu’s actions, saying each the airplane and its crew carried out “faultlessly”.

“The pilot did the whole lot appropriately and the airplane was very new and the whole lot appeared to work,” a press release stated.

When requested if wind shear throughout the uncovered runway was the foremost issue, the corporate consultant, Mr Liu, stated: “In response to the pilot, sure.”

Mr Liu stated there was no manner of predicting such violent crosswinds and he was proud of the management tower permitting the touchdown.

“We’ve landed in these circumstances many instances earlier than,” he stated.

Uneasy passengers feared the worst

Many passengers pulled from the wrecked plane stated they had been uneasy about their security even earlier than the flight touched down at Kai Tak.

British businessman Kenny Bell, who makes use of Kai Tak regularly, stated: “I assumed we had been very near the highest of the buildings as we got here in.

“The turbulence was very dangerous. I heard the wheels drop down, and felt them contact the bottom. The pilot placed on the reverse thrust however we didn’t appear to decelerate.

“I used to be sitting by the wing, and I noticed it was nonetheless banking upwards.

“I’ve by no means seen that earlier than, and it was then that I assumed we might have a little bit of an issue.

“The pilot did an excellent job. He turned the airplane away from the deep water, and put us within the shallow finish.”

The passengers weren’t given any warning in regards to the crash and they didn’t have an opportunity to brace themselves for the impression. “There was no time for that,” stated Mr Bell.

The airplane got here to relaxation with a jolt, however not sturdy sufficient to dislodge the overhead lockers.

Mr Bell, from Poole in Dorset, stated: “Within the life raft there was a child crying, however the different folks had been very calm.

“Once we received to the shore some folks wanted oxygen. The remainder of us waited for the coach to return to take us to the terminal.”

Taiwanese passenger Wong Wai-lin, 50, stated the airplane went nose-first into the water.

“The primary few rows had been submerged with sea water as holes had opened up within the physique of the airplane.

“I used to be worrying that the airplane would explode or sink. I sat there hoping we’d get to the runway rapidly.”

Mr Wong sustained a 5cm lower on his proper cheek however was unsure how he had injured himself.

“Whether or not it was glass or different stuff I don’t know, it got here too rapidly. A flight attendant requested me why my face was lined with blood.

“I instructed her that I didn’t know – all I knew was that I couldn’t discover one in every of my sneakers.”

Ex-Nationalist soldier Lo Chen-jung, 65, helped different passengers to don their lifejackets whereas the flight attendants launched the emergency doorways and life rafts.

“The cabin was full of noise of shouts, screams and crying. Some merely couldn’t hear the stewardesses’ directions.

“A number of ladies sitting close to me had been too nervous to tug out the life jackets. They tried the oxygen masks. I comforted them and helped them placed on the jackets.

“A few of them wished to leap out. Silly. We had been at sea. I pulled them again and instructed them to attend to be rescued.

“Hong Kong rescuers had been very environment friendly. It was lower than three minutes and we might go onto the police launch. Nevertheless it had been like ready for 3 years.”

Nonetheless wearing a soaked jacket and trousers, he walked out to the arrival corridor on his personal and later within the afternoon took a practice to Guangzhou.

Among the many youngest passengers was four-year-old Kao Pei-chun, who clearly didn’t know what had occurred.

“It was my first time on a airplane. I favored the snack,” he stated, and requested his father, who had been ready anxiously within the arrival corridor for greater than two hours, for a bottle of milk.