I know the captain really well as I did, almost 20 years ago, my instrument training and commercial flight training with him. He was TRE and TRI in Alitalia on MD11 and B747. He has been one of the youngest pilot upgraded to captain till that time among the company. I still have really good memories of that part of my life as a pilot and, if today I am flying as a captain on a liner, I have to be grateful to this man. In these days in aviation you will struggle to find a captain giving the chance to first officer to land on a such challenging airport!

The MD-11 must've been even tricker than other commercial aircraft to land at Kai Tak!

Uno dei video più belli!

Video fantastico, complimenti al pilota. I piloti alitalia sono, a mio avviso, i migliori del mondo

He said " piano ,pianoooo" which is Italian for slow or easy not "ya, ya" which is Spanish and not Italian. We speak Italian in Italy not Spanish.

5 stars, Excellent video!

I AM SURPRISED THAT YOU UPLOADED THIS ONE.

One of the best videos of youtube

Che bello il suono dei motori invertiti! E che meraviglia di aereo!!

PIA', PIA', PIAAAANOOOOO!!! FERMO!!!! Cpt, the Boss!

I'm not a pilot, but in FSX; when the GPWS counts faster than 1,5 "Altimeter" callouts per second, FS Passenger X most likely brings me a broken tire :D

Not easy at all. Was a captain at Delta Airlines Flying the L-1011 Here. It was not fu. Nerve Breaking. But the L-1011 Stayed strong. Good job to all Captains making these landings. Captain in this video at the end looked like he did not like that landing. Have no clue how many times i lost it in the cockpit when i was doing these approaches back in the day. Good Job

bank angle in atterraggio!!! vorrei vedere l'ala accarezzare l'asfalto;)

AMAZING !

PIANO PIANO PIANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lol, poor first officer.............

bellissimo aereo... ormai uscito di flotta :( .... e bellissimo aeroporto... ormai chiuso da tempo..... p.s. mi pare che i due non andassero molto d'accordo..... non hanno toni cordiali... e l'atterraggio sembra bello tosto...

Before you judge the pilots you have to know that the MD-11 is a bit difficult to land. There's a thin line between a good landing and a hard landing...

I noticed that too! Love the PMDG MD-11 also! I'd like to know the details of this one, but it seems to me that the crew were falling behind the aircraft...joining the IGS at 4500' but only completing the pre landing checklist just before 500' seems to me to be cutting it fine, lastly ,disconnecting the Autopilot at 300' and trying to hand fly the last 30 seconds also seems a little rushed...i would have thought you would d/c the AP earlier whilst established and trimmed on the IGS.

Secondo me di base non ci doveva essere un granchè di "feeling" tra il coopilota e il comandante e si nota quando quest'ultimo rimprovera il primo ufficiale per non aver risposto correttamente alla chiamata del carrello durante la checklist per il finale facendo anche il "ditino" con la mano. Dopo di che si nota lo scazzo totale del coopilota nel rispondere alle successive chiamate del comandante, credo che una parte della "colpa" sia dovuta anche a ciò.

@pokematt99 As stated already many times, Chek Lap Kok took over the ICAO airfield identification (VHHH) from Kai Tak during the switchover. However due to some technical difficulties they decided to reopen Kai Tak just to handle Cargo flights till things were sorted out. During this short period in order to provide an provisional ident, VHHX was used.

And I thought he was saying "we are about to drop like a piano". lol

Grande comandante. Bravo. Comandanti Alitalia veramente in gamba.

Lo stesso atterraggio è stato ripreso in un video , le immagini riprendono l'md11 alitalia che atterra chiaramente in maniera dura toccando pista prima con il carrello di sinistra provocando un forte attrito con le ruote

this was an airport for skilled pilots nice video

@CaptenSmoochie Hello,the captain was pointing his right hand to the right during the landing checklist not to initiate the right turn,he just wanted the first officer to answer to the checklist item"Landing gear",as both(PF and PM)were supposed to call:DOWN FOUR GREEN.(for vital items like the gear, both pilots have to confirm the status)The captain says it in Italian. The first officer missed the response to the checklist probably because he was highly concentrated on the difficult approach.

@tolga1977 the are landing from the sea, the controller clears them for ils runway 31. the approach over the buildings " The checkerboard approach " was IGS 13.

@dhakaboy1 you're right the checkerboard approach is not easy, but this is a ILS 31 approach from over the bay. winds are 320 at 8 knots so not even much of a cross wind.

@TheStereoman2 the system did not call "maintain angle". what happened was, the sink rate was a little too high, causing the MD11 to bounce on landing, and during the bounce, the pilot used ailerons to correct, causing the warning "bank angle"

Pay attention, the video very clearly states that this is a Rwy31 approach. Straight in. 13 had the bank, not 31.

@TheIcecooldk No, Kai Tak used to be VHHH as well, sometimes you find it as VHHX in flight simulation, because VHHH is now used for the new airport.

the very fast countdown from 50 and the bank angle warning at the end makes ryan air pilots jealous

@Quarker99 Yes, it is now know as VHHX but back in the day when it was in exsistance it was VHHH but the new airport took over that code and it was changed to VHHX

As explained in my previous post, the VHHX code doesn't exist in real life and is mostly used by simmers. The 6th of July 1998, Kai Tak was closed and the ICAO (VHHH) and IATA (HKG) airport codes were transferred to the replacement airport (Chek Lap Kok).

un classico, come il Re Leone

L'avvicinamento rwy31 avveniva all'interno di un "canale" circondato da ostacoli: colline/montagne/grattacieli. Il vento impattando contro di essi generava moti turbolenti (turbolenza meccanica) che rendevano difficoltoso l'avvicinamento. L'avviso Bank Angle (Mode6 dell'EGPWS) interviene quando viene superato un angolo di bank di 6° a 0ft RA con variazione lineare fino 40° a 150ft RA. Il sistema è sensibile al roll rate e aggiunge 1.5° di bank per ogni °/s (max correzione 6°).

@Quarker99 Before being closed, Kai Tak Airport's code was VHHH

Wow that looks hard! May I feature this landing an upcoming video? I'll be sure to provide a link for viewers to return to your video. Cheers!

❤U love Hong kong

@JMsoo Esatto! per atterrare ad HKG si doveva fare una virata in manuale di 47 gradi verso destra ad un'altezza di circa 200 metri da un qurtiere ad alta densità abitativa. Come riferimeto i piloti avevano il checkboard, un pannello grandissimo a scacchi rossi/bianchi, posto di fronte al corridoio di atterraggio e che dava il via alla virata.

All the Location Indicators available for Hong Kong, as per ICAO's Doc7910, are: VHHH = Hong Kong Intl, VHHK = Hong Kong FIR, VHSK = Sek Kong, VHST = Shun Tak Heliport.

i bet this is the hard alitalia landing from cockpit view :D

mmhhh.. incoraggiante... piano ahoooooooooo !!!

@TakumiFujiwara80 This video has been taken during an ILS for rwy31. The one you are pointing out is an IGS13.

Captain is saying something like "easy easy" (ital. "piano piano") at the touch down. The landing was done by First Officer (copilot) and was a hard landing. Most likely they had some shear wind seconds before touchdown.

Coming into RWY31, looked like they had some gusts on short final followed by bounce landing. Nice video

Another explanation is that the airplane was making a crosswind landing and when about 20 ft of the rwy he stepped on the rudder pedals to align the airplane with the rwy but he obviously didnt make opposite eleron movement and the airplane banked too much.

WOW, that was a hard aproach

How many hours do you have as a pilot on Douglas trijets?

immagino ahah, cose dell'altro mondo ! :-))

Brava. Ottimo approccio alla tua fobia. ;-)

bank angle :O on a landing

at 3.44 Captain is shouting SLOW SLOW (piano piano) For me this was a rather hard landing!

sounds to me that they had some downdraft that pushed the plane down just before landing and that caused the landing to be hard, bouncing the plane back into the air and correcting this caused the wings to tilt one way causing the bank angel alarm. Those planes bounce on hard landing all the time. You can see this by looking at other MD11 landings on KZfaq.

I wonder if this video in the cockpit is the same plane that landed, in airbus94's video because he touched down pretty hard and seemed like they were in a violent crosswind.

Was this a crosswind landing or why did the computer indicate bank angle? And this was also an ILS approach right?

@Giovani22 anche a me ti devo dire..cmq è un casino questo avvicinamento.. il PF era il copilota?

Grande comandante...pianooo :D

It's an SAR (Special Administrative Region) of Greater China. The "China" that most people reflexively refer to is the PRC (People's Republic of China). Then there's the ROC (Republic of China) which is usually referred to as "Taiwan" in the West, and "Chinese Taipei" in international collaborations. And lastly, there's Hong Kong, and Macau, both are SARs. All four combined (PRC + ROC + HK SAR + Macau SAR) = "Greater China"

pianissssimo, that's about flying!

ke figata troppo bello questo video, soprattutto quando il capitano dice piano, si stava per incazzare xd

I think it was simply a faulty warning. The second touch down is the nose gear.

@thefsxflyer No, you said: "Yes, it is now know as VHHX but back in the day when it was in exsistance it was VHHH..."

this is runway 31 so its the other end of the runway not the one that all the videos have

KAI TAK- the most dangerous airport. very dangerous landing !

wow so cooooool

that must have been quite a bounce considering they didnt hit the wing during the bank angle alert

They're turning Kai Tak into a shopping Mall.

What is the captain says at the end? the alarm says something too..

it was saying bank angle because it was on the ground and had a slight bank

Ohibo'!!! Due festival metal in Germania nello stesso mese? E dove lo fanno il Summer Breeze?

Whew...that bird was coming down quick

@Quarker99 Kai Tak is now not used anymore. So in real life it has no code. It is now a construction site. "VHHX" only exists in MSFS and x-plane etc..

wow.......that was close....bank angle on touch down

I'm the best armchair aviation expert on youtube and I can conclude due to my detail investigation that this airplane is an MD-11.

Thank you for clarifying my good man.It is easy to misinterpret as it was in vody language(one finger of raise could be interpreted as an insult in another culture) hence the unequivoval importance to be vocal and precise in cockpit intercommunication.There are many Captains who like to constantly prompt to feel in charge even though the FO is doing a reasonable job.This I though t was one such instance and old school Captains(as the one that features here) are usually susceptible to that.Thanx

no,le sue iniziali sono G.L.F. all'epoca (1992/93) volavo all'aeroclub a l'Aquila e lui aveva circa 55 anni, aveva volato sui DC 10 fino alla metà degli anni 80. era uno degli istruttori nell'aeroclub

True! WTF?! Did they get a sudden gush of crosswinds?

what does he mean by the bank angel? was it the plane saying that or computers in it?

I'd love to see what that looked like from outside

He said piano (pee ah noh), which in Italian means easy or slow.

So that's the autopilot disconnect sound great sound and a gpws callout

Che legnata hanno tirato in atterraggio? 50-40-30-20 in 2 secondi

with more than 15 degree of flaps it's limited to 15-18 degrees of angle in MD11.

Ciao, mi chiedevo come mai è stato gridato quel "PIANO!!!"? Per via di una discesa troppo rapida o per un eccessivo movimento beccheggio?? Bel video, complimenti!!!

@chamilitary999 no no you got it totaly worng VHHX closed in 1998 and then VHHH was opened VHHH has 2 runways with 4 CATIII approaches. VHHX had 1 runway with 2 CATIII approaches. But on runway 13 on final the autopilot had to be disengaged and manually touched down.

Yeap, it's the same plane landing just from a different camera! Pretty scary!

@Ahuntsicspotter They were in the time of old Kai Tak airport back un the 90's when this video was taken!

It is much easier to set up for a crosswind on 31, and the approach is much less dangerous for the aircraft and people on the ground.

@Quarker99 Should be VHHH at that time. And this ICAO code was transferred to the new airport we are using now in Chap Lap Kok after 1998/JUL/06

@gaspeli YEAHH INCREDIBLE,IT WAS A VERY HARD LANDING

very rare video btw

Che spettacolo

when was only KAI TAK, it was VHHH, when chek lap kok was inaugurated, then kai tak become VHHX ;)

@keffoo321 he was almost on the ground when that warning went off, must of been so close to a wing strike

They're turning Kai Tak into a Ferry Terminal

It might have been wind sheer or a sudden drop in wind speed near the ground. it certainly looked bumpy enough, though I am not qualified to judge.

@CaptenSmoochie Ok, but the approach has been performed on rwy31 and NOT on the IGS rwy13. It would be interesting if someone could catch all the clues that identify the approach as an ILS rwy31. There are plenty.....

@Quarker99 You see, that's trying to use stuff that you learned in flight simulator in the real world. It was VHHH until it closed. Flight sim now calls it VHHX because it's closed. VHHH is now designated to Chek Lap Kok.

Per via dell'angolo di bank infatti si sente anche il messaggio BANK ANGLE. Questo perchè come puoi notare l'aeromobile tocca prima con il carrello principale di sinistra (3:45) e poi quello di destra (3:47) per via del vento.

LOL the pilot at touchdown yelled: "piano, PIANOOOOOOO" which means "SLOWLY, SLOWLYYYY"