In 1983, a cargo plane of Lufthansa failed to climb when taking off in the direction of Lei Yue Mun. It slid off the runway at the tip and smashed into the lawn. All the wheels of the airplane were damaged. The plane was still new to all appearances and the wing structure remained intact, but the underside and the undercarriage were wrecked. The insurance company calculated that restoration was cheaper than scrapping, so it asked HAECO to repair it without causing further damage. We did it in the end. Boeing also sent helpers to us, and three months later the plane flew off like a brand new one. I was responsible for recording the whole event, and I filmed it from start to end. At the beginning I filmed for 11 days before the damaged aircraft was delivered to the hangar. Since it had a high tail, its staying on the runway actually shortened the effective length of the runway, and other planes had to reduce load before they could take off. Our work in the first two days was to remove the tail, so that the height restriction was cleared. If it obstructed the airport’s operation, the plane would be dumped into the sea like scrap iron. Then, all the five landing gears were cleared up, and the plane was successfully restored. It was the world’s first 747 to receive such an overhaul.

The company called me at midnight hours, telling me to make ready for emergency. A plane, they said, was stuck at the runway end, hindering other planes to land and takeoff. The company didn’t have massive towing machine for that plane, but it happened that we had just purchased a large towing tractor with flanges of a circumference of about a dozen feet. However, we didn’t have any crane capable of lifting 747. So we borrowed one from the Whampoa Dock. We had to tow the plane back because all the wheels were damaged. At last we pulled out our huge flanges, hauled up the plane, put the flanges under the plane, and attached the towing machines beneath the flanges. That’s how we transported the plane to the hangar.