Miraculous Survival: China Airlines Flight 642 Story

This investigation looks at China Airlines flight 642. A Boeing MD 11 which crashes in Hong Kong in stormy conditions. This air disaster does not end how I expected especially when watching the crash video!
Flight 642 was on a two leg trip from Bangkok in Thailand to Taipei in Taiwan with an intermediate stop in Hong Kong. The problem for the crew was that a severe tropical storm was also going to reach Hong Kong as they were.

Source:

Crash video:

Final report:

[katsbreez]

Absolutely amazed that that many people survived! Thought for sure you were going to say massive loss of life due to the doors being upside down and hard to open. Condolenses to the family and friends of the three who didn't make it.

[timeforcoffee]

I know nothing about flying except being a passenger, but your graphics and explanations make it much easier to try and understand what is happening. Plane disasters and near misses will always fascinate people. For all the issues, the pilots did at least get it back on the ground and loss of life was minimal although tragic. Thank you.

[jimmysmith]

A friend of mine was on one of the flights that landed just before this one and they had just entered the terminal when this aircraft crashed.
He noted that it was one of the scariest landings in his life - he thought they were going to crash.

[ChabbaD]

It’s awful that there were fatalities, but I’m amazed how many people survived that! the crew on the ground did an amazing job gaining access so quickly! The pilots clearly did the best they could in horrendous conditions. Thanks again for another great video! :-)

[josh]

I cannot believe the ending of this crash!! After seeing the real footage at the start I thought the shock at the end was 300 lives were lost! The actions of the fire fighters definitely saved lives that day, many, many lives! Absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing this with us. Fantastic video as always.

[chboy]

Correction required- Bangkok (BKK) was still using Don Muang International Airport back in 1999.

[PelenTan]

Hard to heap too much fault on the pilots for this one. The official report seems to say the same thing. Basically "Yeah, there were things that _could_ have been done better, but it took something like this to point it out."

[swuffy]

One notable fact is that the duty officer of the Airport Fire Contingent at HKG had decided to turn all vehicles within the station towards the South runway when the announcement of the closure of the North runway was heard, which had helped to expedite the emergency response significantly.

[emmyjj]

I came across your channel a few weeks ago, & something that sets you apart from most of the other channels I've seen is the diversity of accidents (incidents?) - it's refreshing when everyone doesn't die! I know that this is to your detriment, since a lot of people who want to see highly dramatic videos full of fatalities may not subscribe, so I really appreciate your continued willingness to create content like this. Also, you do a great job with the writing, and reading, of your scripts!

[NorwayT]

Rough conditions is part of flying in the Arctic. But Typhoons like this must be hell. The SAR Team at VHHH was right out heroic! Fantastic response time. This was a clear TOGA situation. I don't know the baggage handling procedures, but with such a small margin to MLW, it would only takee for a few passengers to have a little bit extra in their hand luggage for the MD-11 to actually have exceeded MLW. Had they gone around, they would have burnt enough fuel to be comfortably under MLW. Important lessons learnt from this accident,

[ChabbaD]

Also, you’re so close to 50K subscribers!! 🎉 well done, you deserve it! I’ve been here since the start and it’s been great seeing your channel grow, you clearly work so hard and make great content. And It’s been refreshing to see a variety of incidents opposed to the same old ones covered over and over again-keep it up 👍🏻

[Randomequestrian-pmhl]

Great to see Curious Pilot has popped through 50K subscribers - well earned, for clear and concise coverage of some lesser-known accidents and incidents. Also great to find a youtuber in aviation who always succinctly defines the many acronyms for us. Videos are an ideal length, too, and offer a slightly different format from every other aviation youtuber I follow. Thank you for this!

[greenbeenie]

As an instrument rated pilot, who flies often as "single pilot IFR", I feel that these pilots did a good job, considering ALL the information on weather. JUST MY PERSONAL OPINION....

[SerenDoubleYou]

To see a fireball like that, and then find out there was only 3 casualties, and one of them was days later...
Thats increadible.

[davidtaschuk]

MD-11 was a handful to flare even in less challenging weather. FedEx crashed two ( that i can remember). Very similar sequence, too. Hit hard, one main collapses, wing rips off, lift from the other wing rolls the aircraft onto its back. Everyone survived the one in Newark, the one in Narita killed both pilots. Both of those started with a bounce, but otherwise almost identical to this crash.

[fishbone]

Great video. It's amazing that Sophie few people were injured on this flight. Could've been a lot worse.

[pjs]

Nice, something to listen to while I'm cleaning this afternoon- cheers mate!

[Stumpchunkman]

Your videos are great. Thanks for all the work you put into them. As a friendly criticism, it would be nice to see more realistic depictions of the airplane in flight. For example, at 15:55, you mention the aircraft being on stable approach, but the video shows the plane banking very steeply left and right. It would really increase the efficacy of the narrative to have realistic depictions of what the airplane was actually doing. Keep up the good work.

[anonymous_hedgehog]

It's rare to hear about airplane accidents that happened in my home city. Feels much more threatening when I'm reminded that plane crashes do happen just an hour's drive away from home!
Thanks for sharing this story.

[KamilDziadkiewicz]

It would be amazing to hear more about emergency cervices on airports! <3