Chris Gelken has nearly 20 years experience as a photographer, writer, news editor and broadcaster.

For the past 11 years Chris has been based in Asia where he now works for Hong Kong's leading AM radio news station, Metro Plus.

Chris also contributes freelance material on a wide variety of topics to newspapers, magazines and radio networks internationally.

Airport 98 -- The Real Disaster Movie

The words 'Chek Lap Kok' are quickly becoming synonymous with disaster. Hong Kong's new airport has turned into a public relations disaster. The international media were invited to cover the grand opening of what should have been the jewel in Hong Kong's glittering infrastructure crown -- what they've been reporting for the past week is a litany of mis-management, buck-passing and chaos. And should some network or other decide to do a full length feature -- they'll have plenty of footage to play with!

An unconfirmed tale from a usually reliable source. A Cathay Pacific 747 jumbo taxied from the runway and when it arrived on the apron the pilot was told there was no gate immediately available. The frustrated passengers complained about the delay to the cabin crew -- and the enterprising captain responded by broadcasting his somewhat convoluted communications with the control tower on the cabin loudspeakers. The tower apparently instructed the plane to its assigned gate but within a few minutes the Captain witily told the controller that another aircraft was occupying the space.

A few minutes passed. The plane was ordered to another gate. The same thing happened, another aircraft was already disembarking passengers at that particular location. A few more frustrating minutes passed. The jumbo was ordered to a gate near the end of the terminal and believe it or not, the experience was repeated again. At this point the captain informed the tower that it is extremely difficult to do a U-turn in a jumbo so unless they gave him somewhere to park they'd have a major towing job on their hands.

Members of the newly-elected and installed legislature were quick to pounce on this obvious example of "executive" government mismanagement. Heads must roll! They were enthusiastically egged on by the media - with one less than reputable rag calling for the immediate resignations of several senior officials. The Oriental Daily claimed that such a simple thing as closing down one of the busiest airports in the world and opening its replacement within the space of of a few hours should have gone perfectly. I'd like to see them move editorial offices overnight without missing a single dotted 'i' or crossed 't'.

I can't claim any moral high ground here -- our team has been broadcasting every vitriolic soundbite attacking the government we can lay our unbiased and objective hands on. I'm having a good day and feel like being generous for a change. At the risk of upsetting my own bosses, our new newsroom computer system was installed several months ago and it still isn't exactly working flawlessly. Rather less than flawlessly as a matter of fact. Well, depends on who you ask, a lot less than flawlessly.

Okay, so that's a simplification. But even the best laids plans of mice and men. It was a plucky attempt, not many administrations would have had the courage to attempt such a monumental undertaking. So it was a disaster of almost Biblical proportions played out in the glare of the international media spotlight. So the administration were trying to prove something and they got it wrong. It's not like they bombed the shit out of a small Third World country or spent zillions of dollars on an anti-ballistic missile defense system that never had a hope in hell of working. We'll get over it. This is Hong Kong.

Chris Gelken
11 July 1998
Hong Kong