Two people are dead after a Boeing 747 cargo plane landing at Hong Kong International Airport veered off the runway and into the sea on Monday. According to a statement from Hong Kong's civil aviation department, the incident happened at around 3:50 a.m. local time. The department said the flight, which was arriving from Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport, had "deviated from the North Runway after landing and ditched into the sea."
Footage of the January incident at Alaska's Eielson Air Force base showed the jet tumbling downwards in the sky and hitting the ground, causing a fireball. A new report released this week by the Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation Board found that the ice in the landing gear caused the fighter's automatic systems to wrongly assume that it had landed even though it was still in the air, making the aircraft "uncontrollable."
Emergency services were called to the site near the A3020 Shanklin Road on Monday morning. A spokesman for Northumbria Helicopters said that its aircraft G-OCLV - which is listed as a Robinson R44 II helicopter - was involved in the accident during a flying lesson. The firm said: "The flight, which departed from Sandown Airport at approximately 9am, was carrying four passengers on board including the pilot, and was undertaking a flying lesson."
"Recent media reports on the Air India 171 crash are premature and speculative. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau just released its preliminary report. Investigations of this magnitude take time," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement.
