Hong Kong airport closes northern runway after cargo plane’s tire bursts during emergency return

“The aircraft will now remain on the north runway. We assume that the north runway will not be operational in the next few hours,” said an agency spokesman. “We can only operate with one runway.”

He was referring to the airport’s south runway.

The cargo plane was still on the north runway on Monday afternoon and was surrounded by several service vehicles.

The authority urged tourists to check current information about their flights as planes scheduled to depart in the morning are expected to be affected.

According to aircraft data available online, the aircraft is Atlas Air cargo flight 5Y4304.

The plane took off at 4:09 a.m. for Anchorage in the USA, made a U-turn near Taipei an hour later and landed back in Hong Kong several hours later.

Last year, a Cathay Pacific Airways flight bound for Japan had to return to Hong Kong after one of the aircraft’s cargo doors was “found unlocked.”

The plane landed safely and the passengers later flew to their destination on another flight.