'No risk of mid-air collision'

The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) denied on Tuesday that two aircraft landing at Chek Lap Kok airport nearly collided in mid-air on Sept 18.

Responding to media enquiries, the CAD said the "loss of separation incident", involving a Dragonair A330 and a Cathay Pacific Airways B777, took place 37 nautical miles southwest of the airport, while both aircraft were holding for their arrival sequence.

The controller ordered a vertical separation when detecting a conflict of two aircraft at the same altitude.

But the Boeing 777 crew missed the instruction to climb to a higher altitude.

Fortunately, the Traffic Collision Avoidance System kicked in on both planes.

The aircraft passed at a distance of 1 nautical mile (2 km) in diverging turns, with increasing vertical separation.

Standard horizontal separation is 5 nautical miles; standard vertical separation is 1,000 feet.

The CAD said since the evasive actions by both aircraft were executed in a controlled manner, and since both pilots had the other aircraft in view well in advance, there was no risk of collision.

Billionaire in 'blackmail'

Hong Kong billionaire Samuel Tak Lee has been identified as a central figure in a blackmail trial in London.

The 71-year-old property magnate has been pursuing a private prosecution in a London court against 45-year-old Fuk Wu, who Lee said was his secretary.

Lee claimed Wu had attempted to blackmail him by claiming she was pregnant and that he was the father.

But Wu presented evidence, including records of hotel stays and lavish gifts, to prove she was actually a mistress of Lee.

After Wu was acquitted of the charge, a judge lifted a court order protecting Wu's anonymity at the request of her counsel.

Lee, who owns properties in Hong Kong as well as in London, is a major stakeholder of Prudential Centre and Pruton Prudential Hotel in Mong Kok.

99% Chinese cold dishes safe

Only two of 200 samples collected by the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) in a surveillance project assessing the microbiological quality of Chinese cold dishes were found unsatisfactory.

A CFS spokesman said on Tuesday that the center collected different types of Chinese cold dishes in July and August from various food premises, food factories, supermarkets and convenience stores to test for pathogens.

The tests covered Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus.

A sample of sliced boiled pork with jellyfish was found to contain Salmonella while a sample of vegetarian goose was detected with Staphylococcus aureus at a level of 100,000 per gram.

China Daily

(HK Edition 09/28/2011 page1)