More than 20 flights were delayed early yesterday after two tyres on a Cathay Pacific jumbo jet carrying 350 passengers shredded as it accelerated down the runway for takeoff at Chek Lap Kok.
The pilot of flight CX289 to Frankfurt was forced to abandon takeoff when two tyres on the left-hand side of the Boeing 747-400 burst on the southern runway.
A Cathay spokeswoman said the plane was travelling at 60 knots - 110km/h - when the tyres blew, comfortably below about 130 knots at which it would have been too late to abort takeoff.
The southern runway was closed for 28 minutes and more than 20 flights delayed as the plane's tyres were replaced and workers cleared debris from the runway. Seventeen outgoing flights were delayed and six inbound ones, including a Dragonair flight which had to be diverted to Macau, a spokeswoman for the Airport Authority said.
No one was hurt in the incident and the passengers and crew from the Cathay flight, due to take off at 12.01am, were transferred to an another plane which departed for the 12-hour flight at 4am.
Cathay engineers were yesterday trying to find out what caused the tyres to burst in what was the latest in a series of mishaps on the airline's fleet of Boeing 747-400s in recent months.