Typhoon Nesat created much drama at HKG. Lots of diversions and cancellations.

I was inbound on CX841, arriving over HKG around 1:30 PM local time. We held for 30 minutes south of HKG before making a landing attempt. That attempt was aborted and a go around initiated. We then circled for another 15 minutes, before attempting landing again, which was also aborted (during both attempts you could feel the windshear).

Two strikes and we were out; diverting to Taipei. Unfortunately, TPE was already full with diversions, so we went to Kaohsuing instead. We were the sixth CX aircraft to land there. Our crew was, by this time, out of hours, so we had a wait for a new crew, which was flown in on a KA flight.

Credit is due, for the most part, to the KA staff at Kaohsuing. They had steps at the plane within minutes of our shutting down and, within an hour, arranged busses to the terminal. I personally would have rather stayed onboard, but that was largely due to my perch in Seat 1K. I'm sure my opinion would have been different if I were in 40K. I think we were the only plane that was unloaded (other a/c were regional A330s and 773s, so crew duty hours were less of a concern).

The new crew arrived at 6:15 PM. In the interim, KA provided meal boxes to the pax. Not to my liking, but a good effort, nonetheless. We boarded around 7:30 and were wheels up at 9:00 with a 10:05 PM departure (24 hours after leaving JFK).

Both crews did a great job and the KA ground staff handled the matter well. My only gripe was the boarding was very disorganized, but I suspect this wasn't any everyday event for them and the plane was parked remotely.