At 8:49 a.m. on January 28, 2024, Cathay Pacific flight CX633 from Hong Kong to Penang, Malaysia, had to return urgently shortly after takeoff due to smoke from the cabin, and the crew quickly turned back and landed at Hong Kong Airport in only 5 minutes.
The crew of Flight CX633 flew the Airbus A330-343 large wide-body passenger aircraft with registration number BLAM, which is 12.5 years old, which is in the prime of life. When it was discovered that there was unknown smoke in the engine room, the crew reacted quickly and handled it properly, and returned to land safely at 8:54, and no one was injured in the incident.
The ability to respond to this air emergency was due on the part to the well-trained crew and the experience of Cathay Pacific on the other. You know, this is the third smoke incident in Cathay Pacific in recent years.
On October 26, 2023, Cathay Pacific Airways flew from Hong Kong to San Francisco on flight CX872 operated by Airbus A350-941. Subsequently, the passenger plane involved in the incident turned back to the tarmac for inspection, and the passengers on board had to return to the terminal, and no one was injured in the incident.
Another smoke incident occurred on April 8, 2019, at 8:02 a.m., shortly after takeoff of Cathay Pacific flight KA451 from Kaohsiung to Hong Kong operated by an Airbus A330 large passenger aircraft, the right engine suddenly smoked, and the plane circled in the open sea for several times and urgently leaked fuel, and returned safely to Kaohsiung Airport at 8:31.
The smoke incident on flight CX633 has put Cathay Pacific in the spotlight again, and while the crew of the flight managed to deal with the emergency in the face of danger, why does Cathay Pacific keep smoking?