Captain landed jet in front of VIPs after instruments failed but was among 52 fired

A senior Cathay Pacific pilot who safely landed a potentially catastrophic flight before a crowd of VIPs last year was among the 52 sacked by the airline last month, it emerged yesterday.

The captain, who was with Cathay for more than 11 years, saved the jet from crashing after

a bizarre maintenance error in which residue from adhesive tape blocked vital instruments on the outside of a specially painted plane.

He said yesterday he was shocked to find himself among those sacked on July 10 at the height of the on-going dispute with management over rosters, overtime and salary. The flight involved Cathay's Spirit of Hong Kong jet, which was being flown into Hong Kong for a high-profile welcome after being painted with a design submitted by a local school student as part of a worldwide competition.

The pilot, who is from Canada and is married with a young son, was traced by the South China Morning Post yesterday. He was reluctant to discuss his dismissal, but confirmed that he took three weeks' leave to recover from the stress of the 'very frightening' incident, which happened on January 17 last year.

He said the plane had only just taken off from Xiamen, where it had been painted, and was surrounded by clouds when a cockpit alarm signalled that it was about to stall. The three sets of instruments on board gave three different readings, and 'critically important' information was unavailable.

'There are two airlines that have had similar problems and both planes have ended up crashing. Instruments are the sixth sense for pilots,' he said. 'This is what we're paid to do, cope with situations like this, but it amounted to what I would call a very lousy day in the office. It was a very frightening experience.'