Hong Kong runway resumes operations after fatal plane crash

Hong Kong runway resumes operations after fatal plane crash
Steven Yiu, Airport Authority Hong Kong’s executive director of airport operations, shows the location where a Boeing 747-400 cargo aircraft skidded into the sea during landing on the north runway of Hong Kong’s international airport on Oct. 20, 2025. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 28 October 2025
Follow

Hong Kong runway resumes operations after fatal plane crash

Hong Kong runway resumes operations after fatal plane crash
  • On October 20 a Boeing cargo plane veered off the airport’s northernmost runway during landing
  • The aircraft hit a security patrol car and skidded into the sea

HONG KONG: The Hong Kong airport runway involved in a deadly plane crash has restarted operations, authorities said Tuesday, just over a week after two men were killed in the city’s deadliest air incident since 1998.
On October 20 a Boeing cargo plane veered off the airport’s northernmost runway during landing, then hit a security patrol car and skidded into the sea.
The salvage operation was completed on Monday night and the involved runway has reopened, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said Tuesday, adding that the airport was running as usual.
More than 20 flights have used the runway since 7:00 a.m. Tuesday (2300 GMT Monday), according to data from tracking website Flightradar24.
Two airport security staff were killed in last week’s incident, with authorities saying they had been in a safe position “outside the runway area.”
The city’s air accident investigation authority is now conducting an investigation covering crew qualifications, flight operations, and maintenance records, Lee said.
The black box flight recorders were retrieved on Friday night, and a preliminary investigation report is expected to be released within a month.
Lee said that the plane’s crew, from Istanbul-headquartered ACT Airlines, has remained in Hong Kong since the crash.
Officials said earlier that both the American and Turkish civil aviation accident investigative agencies, as well as experts from Boeing, are participating in the probe.
The crash happened at the airport’s newest runway, part of a HK$142 billion ($18 billion) expansion project that was completed last year.


EU in last-minute talks to set new climate goal for COP30

EU in last-minute talks to set new climate goal for COP30
Updated 25 min 49 sec ago
Follow

EU in last-minute talks to set new climate goal for COP30

EU in last-minute talks to set new climate goal for COP30
  • EU ministers meet to try to pass new climate target
  • Bloc’s credibility at risk ahead of COP30 climate talks

BRUSSELS: EU climate ministers will make a last-ditch attempt to pass a new climate change target on Tuesday, in an effort to avoid going to the UN COP30 summit in Brazil empty-handed.
Failure to agree could undermine the European Union’s claims to leadership at the COP30 talks, which will test the will of major economies to keep fighting climate change despite opposition from US President Donald Trump.
Countries including China, Britain and Australia have already submitted new climate targets ahead of COP30.
But the EU, which has some of the world’s most ambitious CO2-cutting policies, has struggled to contain a backlash from industries and governments skeptical that it can afford the measures alongside defense and industrial priorities. EU members failed to agree a 2040 climate target in September, leaving them scrambling for a deal days before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets other world leaders at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, on November 6.
“The geopolitical landscape has rarely been more complex,” EU climate policy chief Wopke Hoekstra told a gathering of climate ministers in Canada on Saturday, adding that he was confident the bloc would approve its new goal.
“The European Union will continue to do its utmost, even under these circumstances, in Belem to uphold its commitment to multilateralism and to the Paris Agreement,” he said.
The starting point for talks is a European Commission proposal to cut net EU greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent from 1990 levels by 2040, to keep countries on track for net-zero by 2050.
Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic are among those warning this is too restrictive for domestic industries struggling with high energy costs, cheaper Chinese imports and US tariffs.
Others, including the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, cite worsening extreme weather and the need to catch up with China in manufacturing green technologies as reasons for ambitious goals. The draft compromise ministers will discuss, seen by Reuters, includes a clause demanded by France allowing a weakening of the 2040 goal in future, if it becomes clear EU forests are not absorbing enough CO2 to meet it. Brussels has also vowed to change other measures to attempt to win buy-in for the climate goal. These include controlling prices in an upcoming carbon market and considering weakening its 2035 combustion engine ban as requested by Germany.
A deal on Tuesday will require ministers to agree on the share of the 90 percent emissions cut countries can cover by buying foreign carbon credits — effectively softening efforts required by domestic industries.
France has said credits should cover 5 percent, more than the 3 percent share originally proposed by the Commission. Other governments argue money would be better spent on supporting European industries than buying foreign CO2 credits.
Support from at least 15 of the 27 EU members is needed to pass the goal. EU diplomats said on Monday the vote would be tight and could depend on one or two flipping positions.
Ministers will try first to agree the 2040 goal, and from that derive an emissions pledge for 2035 — which is what the UN asked countries to submit ahead of COP30.