A British Airways flight faced several difficulties until it was finally able to land at Hong Kong International Airport last Friday (8), after a 36-hour flight. The case was recorded during Flight BA-31, a regular service that departs from London and operates Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
The pilots took off the plane in the early evening of October 8, for a flight that was supposed to be 11 hours to Chek Lap Kok International Airport in Hong Kong. However, as they approached the landing, at about 14:00 local time, they had to deal with the adverse conditions brought by the strong winds of the typhoon, which was reaching the Chinese coast.
That afternoon, several flights, including the BA-31, were diverted, but not before British pilots made two unsuccessful landing attempts. After the aborted landings, the pilots decided to make a detour to the international airport in Manila, the Philippines, where they landed successfully after about an hour and a half.
But the challenge remains.
Despite being on land, the plane’s passengers had to contend with another issue: Philippine border restrictions, which require quarantine if they disembark, as well as Hong Kong’s entry restrictions for passengers arriving from the Philippines.
As a result, none of the passengers or crew were allowed to leave the plane while they waited for the tropical storm to pass and ended up spending the night on board. Finally, at 9:45 am, the weather in Hong Kong improved and the plane was able to take off.
The approach to landing was normal until a few meters before touching the runway, when the pilots decided to abort the landing again. Finally, on the fourth attempt, the landing was successful, which led to the video below, which shows the applause of the pilots.
Applause in Hong Kong on @British Airways Great crew BA31. 36 hours, aborted landing and a night aboard the boat in Manila. thank you all. Tweet embed Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/fsfsgwDtDb
– jaywalker (@Janetdplanet163) October 10, 2021
According to an article by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the citation is not over yet. After landing, all passengers had to wait several hours at Hong Kong airport before analyzing the results of their theses about Covid-19.
In addition, they had to wait a little longer for the new quarantine facilities, as their reservations at certain hotels were canceled for this purpose due to a no-show caused by the delayed arrival of the flight.
According to SCMP, despite the trouble, the passengers did not seem angry about the situation, but understood what had happened. In turn, British Airways issued a simple statement on the issue:
“Like other airlines, our flight to Manila was diverted due to Tropical Storm Leonrock, which prevented a safe landing in Hong Kong. Serve our customers on board. We apologize for any inconvenience”.
