Hong Kong runway reopens after cargo plane crash, but it won't be used regularly for now

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HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong on Tuesday reopened the runway where a cargo aircraft crashed and plunged into the sea the previous day, but said it won't be used regularly until the wreckage was cleared.

The Boeing 747 flown by Turkey-based ACT Airlines flight from Dubai skidded to the left after landing early Monday and collided with a patrol car, causing both the aircraft and the car to plunge into the sea. Two workers in the car were killed. The four crew members on the plane had no apparent injuries.

The U.S. National Transport Safety Board was sending five investigators to Hong Kong to assist the probe by the city's air accident investigation authority, the U.S. agency posted on X on late Tuesday.

Repairs to the runway and damaged fencing have been completed, Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director for airport operations, told Radio Television Hong Kong. He added that that investigators had collected initial evidence at the scene.

The plane's cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have not yet been retrieved, Yiu said. The aircraft was being operated under lease by Emirates, a long-haul carrier based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The runway was reopened and put on standby status around 4 p.m., according to a statement on Tuesday evening. That means it can be used for landings but will not be included in regular flight planning.

Yiu earlier told Radio Television Hong Kong that it would remain in that status until the wreckage is fully cleared from the sea.

Hong Kong authorities were in contact with barge companies for the cleanup but they could not begin removal work while Tropical Storm Fengshen was still affecting the city, he said. Depending on weather, wreckage removal and other work could be completed within a week, Yiu said.

Investigators were continuing to work to determine the cause of the crash. Yiu said both weather and runway conditions met standards during the incident, while mechanical and human factors were yet to be investigated.

Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said her bureau hoped the air accident investigation authority would release an initial probe report within a month, the bureau posted on Facebook.

Monday’s crash was the second fatal incident for ACT Airlines. In 2017, a Boeing 747 flown by ACT Airlines under the name MyCargo crashed as it prepared to land in fog in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, killing all four crew on board and 35 people on the ground. ACT Airlines flew that route from Hong Kong on behalf of Turkish Airlines.

A later report on the crash by Kyrgyz authorities blamed the flight crew for misjudging the plane’s position while landing in poor weather. The crew was tired and had a heated exchange with air-traffic control before the crash, the report said.