Another Atlas Air Boeing 747, bound for Anchorage, has suffered a burst tire, with the most recent incident being in Hong Kong is the early hours of this morning.
Information is limited regarding this incident, but below is what we know on this so far.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Atlas Air Flight 5Y4304 Hong Kong to Anchorage…
Atlas Air flight 5Y4304 is a routine scheduled flight between Hong Kong and Anchorage.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in this incident is registered as N406KZ.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N406KZ is a 16.5 year old Boeing 747-400F that started out life with Nippon Cargo Airlines in December 2007.
In November 2018, Atlas Air took ownership of the aircraft.
Furthermore, of the 747-400F variant, Atlas Air has around 35-38 of them, with an average fleet age of 15-25 years.
In total, the airline has 100 aircraft in their fleet, consisting of:
- 8 Boeing 737 Family aircraft.
- 58 747 Family aircraft.
- 27 767 Family aircraft.
- 7 777 Family aircraft.
Atlas Air flight 5Y4304 departed Hong Kong at 0410 local time this morning and initially climbed out towards Anchorage.
Data from RadarBox shows that the aircraft reached an altitude of 31,000 feet before turning back to the airport.
At this stage, it is unclear why the initial u-turn took place, but a second incident developed on landing.
Atlas Air flight 5Y4304 bound for Anchorage landed back into Hong Kong at 0955 local time.
SCMP News reported that the Boeing 747 Freighter suffered a burst tire on landing.
This resulted in the aircraft being stuck on the runway for a couple of hours, disrupting traffic movements.
Furthermore, the aircraft was eventually pulled off the runway and traffic operations could continue from that specific area.
Recap of the Two Other Incidents…
This now represents the third time a burst tire has happened on the Atlas Air Boeing 747s in just 17 days.
The first incident took place on June 3 involving flight 5Y8350.
Atlas Air flight 5Y8350 departed Anchorage at 1029 local time on June 2 and tracked south to Los Angeles.
It was observed that the Atlas Air Boeing 747 suffered a blown tire and was seen from the gear itself.
Furthermore, the aircraft landed safely into LAX at 1614 local time and was able to taxi to a stand without assistance.
The second incident involved 5Y8692, a routine scheduled flight between Seoul and Anchorage.
Atlas Air flight 5Y8692 departed Seoul at 0528 local time yesterday morning and initially climbed out to Anchorage.
After departure, the aircraft suddenly tracked west and started holding.
Furthermore, this was due to tire damage causing a hydraulic issue on the aircraft, as per The Aviation Herald.
So for the carrier, it hasn’t been a great month in terms of incidents.
Reason for the U-Turn Is Still Unknown on Incident #3
Information is yet to be determined regarding the cause of the u-turn back to Hong Kong for the Anchorage-bound Atlas Air flight.
Furthermore, it could very well be that it was related to the burst tire.
Information is still being determined whether this event happened during departure from HKG or whether they landed too hard after the u-turn.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to this particular incident at hand, we will update you accordingly.
Such updates will be seen at the bottom of this article. Stay tuned for more information on this.
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