Capital Airlines flight to Macau diverted to Shenzhen

Flight JD5759, operated by Capital Airlines, which was en route from Beijing to Macau, was forced to divert to and land in Shenzhen airport yesterday, where it landed at 11:58 a.m. 

According to Xinhua news agency, five passengers were injured when the Chinese flight was forced to divert to the alternate airport due to landing gear problems, authorities said yesterday.

The Shenzhen airport closed down a runway for three hours and warned that there could be flight delays. Two wheels were missing from the jet after it landed.

The aircraft was carrying 166 people; 157 passengers and nine cabin crew.

“On August 28th, Capital Airlines JD5759 Beijing-Macau flight took off from Beijing Capital Airport at 8:17 a.m. When it was trying to land at the Macau airport, it was suspected that the aircraft encountered a wind shear. The crew then assessed possible damages in the landing gear, which immediately led the crew to start emergency procedures and land in the Shenzhen airport instead,” Capital Airlines said in a statement on its official Weibo account.

“The Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) was informed by Airport Operations Department this morning that at about 11:16 on 28 August in the Macau International Airport (MIA), an aircraft of Beijing Capital Airlines JD5759 from Beijing to Macau carrying 157 passengers encountered technical issues at its final approach to land at Macau International Airport resulting go-around,” Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

“Macau International Airport immediately declared an emergency and activated the airport emergency operations center, the Fire Services arrived on spot to standby. The flight was finally diverted and landed in Shenzhen International Airport. Macau International Airport has deactivated the emergency. The cause of the incident is still under investigation. The Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) is investigating the incident case with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC),” AACM said.

Capital Airlines is one of the subsidiaries of China’s HNA group.

In July of 2017, Beijing Capital Airlines held an inauguration ceremony at MIA to launch its new routes, Beijing-Macau-Lisbon and Lisbon-Beijing-Macau. However,  after a period of operations which lasted a little over one year, Capital Airlines announced it would suspend the route.

Earlier this month, Capital Airlines confirmed that the suspension of the aforementioned routes will occur between October 15 and March of 2019, according to the Lusa Agency.