On 31st March, 2020, a Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300/ER, Registration B-KQM was cleared for an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach on runway 07L, whilst operating flight CX252 from London to Hong Kong.
An incident report, published in the Aviation Herald, indicated that the aircraft was cleared for the ILS approach and had intercepted the appropriate localizer, but as it drew closer to the threshold it deviated, appearing to cross over to 07R.
As the aircraft descended through approximately 850 feet, it began to turn right; subsequently deviating off the correct runway 07L centre line and initiated a critical go-around, at a mere 750 feet.
The aircraft quickly executed a climb, holding a heading of 090 degrees, instead of holding the correct 071 degrees required for runway 07L at Hong Kong.
The Boeing 777 crossed the threshold of the departure runway 07R at about 2000 feet; it then turned left to a heading of about 059 degrees and climbed to 5000 feet, before being subsequently instructed to climb to 6000 feet.
The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department’s ATC report states that upon query, by air traffic control, the flight crew of CX252 reported the reason for their go-around was an ‘unstable approach’.
The crew subsequently reported that they were ready for a second approach into Chap Lap Kok Airport, they were later vectored in for a second ILS approach to runway 07L, which concluded in a safe landing on runway 07L, approximately 20 minutes after the go-around.
A ‘Stable Approach’ is defined internationally by the following factors:
- Attitude (aircraft’s nose pitch)
- Altitude
- Flightpath trajectory
- Airspeed
- Rate of descent
- Engine thrust
- Aircraft configuration
If one or more of these crucial parameters is incorrect, the approach is considered ‘Unstable’.
Yesterday, an A350 approached the runway by going around lantau to the north rather than flying over sha tin and tsuen wan into the airport. i took a screen grab of it. i have never seen an arriving flight cross over the lamma channel. i have only seen southern heading flights do that after take off. do you suppose there was a problem?
I did not hear any report on this.
Im not a pilot and dont know much about planes. Attitude certainly seems like it would be part of a stabilized approach. The pitch has to mean something
Because I’m sure Jagdish Gouda has never made a grammatical error in his life? Informative article, thanks Sam Chui.
hi sam this is jagdish gouda from india Assam I want to correct a word which is wrongly written about CX252 were u write ATTITUDE instead of ALTITUDE for define STABLE APPROACH
Thanks Jagdish, we have made the correction.