2016 Hongqiao Airport runway incursion
China Eastern Airlines Airbus A320-214 and China Eastern Airlines Airbus A330-343 · Runway incursion due to tower error
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Occurrence
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 439
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Aircraft 1 · Airbus A320-214
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A320
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- B-2337
- Operator
- China Eastern Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Not stated
- Survivors
- 154
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Not stated
- Route
- From Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, ChinaTo Tianjin Binhai International Airport, China
Aircraft 2 · Airbus A330-343
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A330
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- B-6506
- Operator
- China Eastern Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Not stated
- Survivors
- 278
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Not stated
- Route
- From Beijing Capital International Airport, ChinaTo Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, China
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Shanghai, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The 2016 Hongqiao Airport runway incursion (also known as the 11 October Hongqiao Airport runway incursion) refers to a civil aviation runway incursion conflict that occurred at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, on 11 October 2016. The incident was caused by a tower controller who forgot the movement of an aircraft and violated working standards, issuing erroneous instructions, and it caused two airliners nearly to collide on the same runway; the Civil Aviation Administration of China classified it as a serious incident, a Category A runway incursion, caused by human factors.
Course of events
On 11 October 2016, a China Eastern Airlines Airbus A320 was operating flight MU5643 from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to Tianjin Binhai International Airport; another Airbus A330, also belonging to China Eastern, was operating flight MU5106 from Beijing Capital International Airport to Shanghai.
At 11:54, after a 19-minute delay, flight MU5643 received the tower's instruction to taxi out. At 12:03 the tower directed MU5643 to taxi to runway 36L, and after completing the pre-takeoff checklist the crew entered the runway.
At 12:04 the 36L tower controller issued takeoff clearance. When MU5643 had accelerated along the runway to about 110 knots (about 200 km/h), the captain noticed a China Eastern A330 airliner (flight MU5106) crossing runway 36L. The pilot in the middle seat immediately checked with the tower, and the first officer briefly applied the brakes to slow down; but after confirming the conflict the captain judged that the aircraft's speed had already reached 130 knots (about 240 km/h), close to rotation speed (Vr), and decisively took over control and pulled back to take off at maximum thrust.
At the same time, the crew of flight MU5106 also noticed the A320 on its takeoff roll while crossing the runway; rather than carrying out the tower's instruction to hold position, the crew chose to accelerate their taxiing so as to clear the runway as quickly as possible.
In the end, flight MU5643 pulled up at a steep angle and skimmed over flight MU5106, with extremely small vertical separation between the two aircraft, and the danger was averted. The two flights were carrying a total of 413 passengers and 26 crew members, and the incident caused no casualties or damage to the aircraft. Flight MU5643 then flew on to Tianjin normally, and flight MU5106 also taxied to its assigned stand. The investigation found that both the takeoff clearance and the runway crossing instruction had been issued by the same 36L tower controller on duty on the same radio frequency.
Investigation and cause
Investigation findings
After the incident, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the CAAC East China Regional Administration formed a joint investigation team, which obtained the communication recordings and radar data and decoded and analysed the flight recorders and cockpit voice recorders (CVR) of the two aircraft involved.
On 14 October the CAAC announced the preliminary findings of the investigation, determining it to be a serious incident caused by human factors, in which the tower controller forgot an aircraft's movement and violated working standards, graded as a Category A runway incursion (i.e., a runway incursion in which separation is extremely reduced and a collision is only narrowly avoided by taking extreme measures). According to calculations, the two aircraft crossed vertically only about 3 seconds apart. The investigation found that the A330 crew had problems including inadequate observation, switching off the transponder in violation of regulations, the left-seat first officer under supervision being unfamiliar with runway crossing procedures, and a lack of cross-checking and confirmation among crew members; but after discovering the danger the crew did not mechanically obey the tower's instruction to hold position, instead choosing to accelerate across and clear the runway, which played a positive role in avoiding a collision. The CAAC praised the A320 crew, saying their "handling was very thorough and correct; they made a decisive call in the face of danger and performed a great service". Captain He Chao, when the first officer hesitated with the brakes, quickly took over control and pulled the stick back to the mechanical stop at a pitch rate of 7.03 degrees per second, successfully averting the crisis.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Chinese Wikipedia article “2016年虹桥机场跑道入侵事件” (revision 93926915, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Chinese Wikipedia article: 2016年虹桥机场跑道入侵事件
- Article
- 2016年虹桥机场跑道入侵事件
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 93926915 · 2026-08-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q28414381
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- zh Wikipedia article "2016年虹桥机场跑道入侵事件" (page 5484477, revision 93926915), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Chinese Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.