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Big jets ready to airlift Taiwanese from HK
[Asia Times] Taiwanese living and working in Hong Kong will get help from their government with carriers asked to prepare for an evacuation
Taiwanese papers also reported that the island’s authorities had also requested China Airlines and EVA Air to stand by to quickly deploy wide-body jets to airlift not only the students but also Taiwanese residents who work or live in Hong Kong.
| Wide-body jets carry up to 850 passenger seats... |
A flight between Hong Kong and Taipei as well as other key cities on the island is only a 70-minute hop, so a passenger jet could fly two round trips without the need to refuel, enabling a swift evacuation should the situation in Hong Kong deteriorate.
| In very round numbers, that’s 2,000 people standing in the aisles and possibly 7.5 hours (load-fly-unload-fly back-load-fly-unload) between refuelings. Plus refueling time... |
A contingency plan was made overnight when international news agenciesincluding Agence France-Presse reported on Thursday that the Hong Kong government was on the cusp of announcing a curfew banning all residents from going outside or joining rallies at night, starting from the coming weekend, citing a tweet by the Beijing-based Global Times which was deleted not long after it was published.
It is estimated that close to 80,000 Taiwanese now live in Hong Kong, mostly through marriage or employment.
| 80,000 divided by 2,000 is 40 double trips. Each double trip will take approximately 7.5 hours plus refueling, for a total of 300 hours plus refueling time unless they refuel and hose out the cabins even as the passengers disembark... |
Posted by: 3dc 2019-11-16 |
