Name: 啓德機場關閉25週年：回憶香港那驚險萬分的空港 － BBC News 中文
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And now witness history with me, Gill Kersley.

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 Harbour 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 as a Kai Tak which will 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 July 6, 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 programme 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.

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 into international Airport Hong Kong.

Kim estimates that he flew into kai Tak about four times a month for 23 years.

It was a monumental piece of engineering.

They look very, very low but it was all legal, it was unique.

I'd been racking my brain trying to think of another airport with those degree of difficulties and there weren't any.

It involved a fairly interesting approach because you had to fly down what's known as an instrument landing system, ils.

But normally with an ILS that takes you right down to the ground.

This one stopped at about 500ft, 600ft 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 so cool because if you look at the this mountain of Kai Tak in profile it looks like a lion's head.

To mark the turning point, there's a famous bit of the hill painted in red and white panels and that was done as A checkerboard.

Now all this of course is visual so you couldn't really do it in poor weather.

On a good day it was a, it was a privilege to do it, it really was.

Can you remember your first flight in there?

I was in the Fleet Arm at the time and strange enough, I've got my logbook with me and it was on 14th October 1971 in the sea Vixen and actually we did a fly pass for Princess Anne's visit and we went around to the south of the island, joined up a formation and came flying down the harbor and I remember looking up and seeing skyscrapers above me and going past this building which has hundreds of round windows in it and the Chinese know it locally as a building of a thousand holes.

And then we went around the south, the island again and we went hurtling past.

Kim's fly past as a pilot in the British Royal Navy was his first flight into Kai Tak.

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 to, went to bat for me and it all established itself and I found out who it was at a Cathay reunion and so I just went up and I said I know.

I said I know you tried to steal that flight of 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 there was noticeable approaching Kai Tak, how empty it was not surprising, but

Going to the terminal itself, of course, it was a video about an hour and 15 minutes before scheduled departure to check in.

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 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, through a church, I suppose you know, an abandoned empty building which had once been so bustling it just felt cold and empty.

It was very, very bizarre and all these lorries and things chuntering off to the new airport full of equipment, and

that really did drive it home, that this was it, this was the Last 1.

By 1996, Kai Tak was handling around 30 million passengers and 1 1/2 million tonnes of cargo.

It was the third busiest airport in the world for passengers and first for cargo.

Squeezed between buildings and rugged mountains and surrounded by bustling streets, there was no room for expansion.

So the new airport was built on an island.

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.

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.

I think there's myself and the other two guys, and

we were both being interviewed and I suddenly realized, oh, my Lord, there's a aircraft full of passengers.

I said, go on, you better get back onto the aircraft quickly.

Overall, you know, I'm still captain of the aircraft, still responsible for 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 Tat 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, and

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 and went home.

Captain Kim Sharman was speaking to me, Jill Kersley, for that edition of Witness History.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

啓德機場關閉25週年：回憶香港那驚險萬分的空港－ BBC News 中文

approach

privilege

spectacular

aware

啓德機場關閉25週年：回憶香港那驚險萬分的空港 － BBC News 中文

approach

privilege

spectacular

aware

啓德機場關閉25週年：回憶香港那驚險萬分的空港－ BBC News 中文