Travellers using Hong Kong’s airport have been advised to check the latest flight information amid possible delays after a cargo plane burst a tyre when making an emergency return on Monday morning, leaving one of the airport’s two runways out of operation for several hours.
The north runway at Hong Kong International Airport was out of action from around 7 am until 3.45 pm, after an Atlas Air freighter that had requested an emergency return at about 6 am burst a tyre while landing at 7.12 am, a Monday afternoon statement from the Airport Authority (AAHK) said. During that period, 186 of the 315 flights handled by the airport were delayed.
The Airport Authority said that none of the five crew members on board the cargo plane were injured, however “as the the hydraulic system of the freighter had broken down, the emergency handling took longer than expected.”
According to the statement, the authority had received reports of suspected tyre fragments on the south runway after an Alaskan cargo flight took off soon after 4 am. “AAHK initiated emergency clearance according to established procedures and arranged other flights to land and take off on the North Runway,” the official body said, adding that clearance was completed by 6.20 pm.
“AAHK is highly concerned about the incident and will require the airline to submit a report to AAHK and Civil Aviation Department as mandated by set procedures,” it added.
According to an update published on the airport’s website at 3.45 pm, despite the reopening of the north runway, “disruption is still expected due to backlog schedules.” Travellers were advised to check the airport’s website or contact their airlines for further information.
As of 4.45 pm, departures from Hong Kong International Airport were delayed by 102 minutes on average, according to flight tracking platform Flightradar24, while the platform’s “disruption index” warned that the airport was experiencing “major problems with long delays and several flights cancelled.” Arrivals saw an average delay of 25 minutes.
Delays to both take offs and landings had increased from earlier in the day. At 12.45 pm, the departures were running 66 minutes behind schedule on average, while arrivals were behind by an average of five minutes.
The airport is in the process of transitioning to a three-runway system, after construction of a third runway was completed in 2022 at an estimated cost of HK$141.5 billion.
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