Wednesday, 23 August: Hello, Hato

5.15pm

Mark Hoey and his team are back in the IOC. “It’s much as we left it,” he says, looking out of the window. Hot. Still. Yesterday’s decision was the right one. Winds even stronger than originally forecast are on the way: 160 kilometres per hour and more.

The storm is scheduled to hit at noon, and by afternoon the winds will change to the southeast. Bad news: crosswinds and turbulence will funnel down from the mountains of Lantau Island and escape into the South China Sea via the airfield.

5.30pm

Hoey is fretting that it would've been possible to get another hour’s worth of flights in. Line ops manager James Toye is more phlegmatic. “That’s a very hard call to make 18 hours out,” he says. “I think this is pretty good.”

All eyes are on the screens tracking the position of the typhoon and the last four aircraft trying to get in ahead of it.

5.40pm

Frankfurt is adamant about the noise curfew, which means a day of anxiety in Hong Kong. The flight is due to arrive at 3.30pm – an hour and a half earlier than the time Hoey set for recommencing operations, but it has plenty of fuel if it needs to hold and/or divert if Hato’s tail is swishing too ferociously. Hoey says: “It will be in the lap of the gods where the winds and rain bands will be at that point.”

6.12pm

The flight from Germany lands safely: not Frankfurt, but the CX376 from Düsseldorf, the last Cathay Pacific flight allowed in before Hato’s inevitable arrival.

“Now it’s boring,” says Hoey. “All operations ceased and we just need to start worrying about tonight’s organised chaos – and the Frankfurt flight.”