Flight snarls as plane's burst tire closes runway

A total of 186 flights were delayed after the north runway at Hong Kong International Airport was closed for eight hours after a cargo plane blew a tire during landing yesterday morning.

Atlas Air cargo flight 5Y4304 took off for Anchorage in Alaska at 4.10am, but about two hours later, its pilots called Air Traffic Control Tower saying they were making an emergency turnaround to the Chek Lap Kok airport.

The plane, carrying five crew members, landed on the north runway at 7.12am. It "was staged on the runway with its aircraft tire burst," the Airport Authority said.

Cargo was unloaded and the plane had to change the tire.

"None of the five crew members on board was injured," the authority said, adding that emergency responses were initiated, including cargo offload and tire replacement. "As the hydraulic system of the freighter had broken down, the emergency handling took longer than expected."

The runway reopened at 3.45pm after the plane had been towed away.

According to the flight tracking website Flightradar24.com, the flight was believed to have suffered hydraulic system failure when it flew over Taiwan and had to revert to Hong Kong.

From 7am to 3pm yesterday, the Hong Kong airport managed to handle 315 passenger flights, but 186 flights were delayed due to the incident, the authority said.

Atlas Air was told to submit a report to the authority and the Civil Aviation Department, the authority added.

Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung expressed concern about the incident.

He said the authority and the CAD always put safety first and did their best to handle the incident and reduce the impact on airport operation.

Lam believed that the airport will be more capable of responding to emergencies when the three-runway system is fully operational.

Flights were greatly affected with only the south runway operating.

A passenger surnamed Ho said he had to change his flight ticket to Taiwan as he worried that he could miss the next flight to New York.

"As there's only one runway working, I am worried that my flight at 3pm may not take off on time, and I will miss my flight to New York. Luckily, the airline allowed me to take an earlier flight so I won't be late for my work," Ho said.

Another passenger surnamed Wong said the incident did not affect her much.

"We are just going on a leisure trip, not for work. The instructions were clear as we saw the news this morning and our flight is in the afternoon," she said.

The south runway was also closed for two hours at 4am yesterday due to suspected debris from aircraft wheels.

For safety, the airport closed the runway for inspection.

"[We] arranged other flights to land and take off on the north runway," the authority said in a statement.

At around 6.20am, the south runway finished its maintenance and reopened for landings and take-offs.

The north runway was also under maintenance until 5.10am.

During the closure of the south runway, more than 10 planes were ordered to hover above Hong Kong for up to an hour before they could land.

rachael.ng@singtaonewscorp.com