Editorial | Open inquiry, prompt report needed on fatal crash at Hong Kong airport

What a Boeing 747 freighter was doing there, veering off the north runway on its landing run and sweeping an airport security vehicle and its two occupants into the sea, is a question that has already been assigned to air accident investigators. This is of great public importance. There must be a full, transparent inquiry. The frightening vision of a wide-bodied jet careering at speed off a runway and into the sea before breaking up calls for nothing less.

Thankfully all four aircrew were unhurt and escaped the partially submerged aircraft down an evacuation slide. Hopefully, their accounts of what happened will assist investigators.

Aviation authorities later said the weather and runway were safe when Emirates flight EK9788 from Dubai landed. The Airport Authority’s Steven Yiu Siu-chung said the security vehicle was not near the runway and was patrolling outside the fence.

Man Ka-chai, chief accident and safety investigator of the Air Accident Investigation Authority, said the probe into the cause of the accident will include the aircraft system, its maintenance and operation, as well as weather and runway conditions.

The human toll could have been much worse. There must be, as far as possible, an open inquiry and prompt public report. Salutary lessons are to be learned from the aftermath of the only previous deadly crash at the airport – that of a China Airlines passenger jet while landing during typhoon-affected weather in 1999, with the loss of three lives. It was more than five years before the government made either report of two separate inquiries public. Such inquiries are held to learn lessons that help avoid similar accidents. The sooner their reports are made public the better, not least because this would forestall unfounded rumours about the reason for delay.