An Airbus A330-300 with roughly 322 aboard operated by Cathay Pacific Airways as Flight CX780 out of Indonesia for Hong Kong touched down safely, but at about 230 knots, after experiencing malfunctions with both engines, Wednesday. In dealing with the problem, the crew intentionally idled the first engine, but the other became fixed at 70 percent, according to Cathay Pacific. The pilots landed fast and used the brakes to successfully stop the plane on the runway, but a small fire broke out at the main landing gear as tires failed. (The jet’s normal touchdown speed is close to 135 knots.) Eight passengers were injured during evacuation. The A330-300 in question was flying with Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. Rolls-Royce and Airbus, along with French and U.K. accident investigators, have been invited to join in the investigation.
The aircraft’s flight data recorders were retrieved Wednesday, and Cathay announced it had no plans to ground its fleet of almost 50 A330-300s. A first report is expected in about a month. The north runway at Hong Kong’s Airport was shut down for 2 hours and 20 minutes in the aftermath causing some system delays. Hong Kong Airport is among the top five busiest in the world, and was most recently listed as the third busiest by Airports Council International.
