Transcript of remarks by STH
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Reporter: The aviation chief said yesterday that there were actually more cases than the case that the plane went missing for 12 seconds. There are actually more cases between Monday, Sunday and today. Do you think there is a need to investigate further into the cases, and do you think that the Civil Aviation Department should provide more details to the public as to why that happened more than once?
Secretary for Transport and Housing: Certainly, the department has been, in my view, forthcoming in explaining any occurrences. The Director (Director-General of Civil Aviation) has come out a couple of times over the last few days, not because the occurrence was particularly serious, because even under the so-called old system, such occasional occurrences of flights not being immediately identified on radar due to various reasons (also happened). In this case, it's not because of the failure of the system itself but it has to do with the plane. In any case, I agree and the Director has undertaken that he would try to understand the situation further. Such occurrences may happen from time to time due to various reasons and it's not just in the case of Hong Kong. In other international airports where flight movements are very frequent, and sometimes due to reasons not because of the air control system, but because of weather or the conditions resulting from the airplane that there may be a situation where the location of the airplane cannot be rigidly located. But there is a solution to that, which is part of the system - the front-line staff at the air traffic control centre will immediately switch on the local mode. That would help to identify the plane. So there is no question of air safety being compromised at all.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, November 24, 2016
Issued at HKT 12:35
Issued at HKT 12:35
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