I lived in HK for a year in 1993-94 and always got myself a right hand seat when flying into Kai Tak, spectacular.
When I got there for the first time, there was a Chinese B747 in the water next to the runway with the tail blown off !
The story was that they'd either forgotten to set the autobrake, or it had gone off by itself and the PF "forgot" to apply brakes manually. Sounds incredible. Does anybody here have any good information about this mishap ?
Anyhow, the airport had to close due to tail obstructing the departure end. The story was that the airport manager simply called the SAS (no not the airline :-), who drilled holes in the tail fin and blew it off ! So typical for Hong Kong, quick and efficient.
Noone was hurt. Some passengers actually didn't realise they'd ended up in the extra-fragrant water around the airport, it all happened so "gently". Or perhaps they were used to "artistic" Kai Tak landings.
Another story was that a tug that was nearby actually sailed towards the plane, and pushed it back to the airport, as it was still floating.