According to Taiwan‘s China Time News Network on Feb. 9, an emergency occurred at Taoyuan International Airport on the afternoon of Feb. 8. A Korean Air Dewey flight lost a tire during landing, causing the northern runway to be temporarily closed. At that time, the airport was in peak flight traffic, maintaining takeoffs and landings on a single runway. Multiple incoming flights were forced to hover in the air. Then, within 10 minutes, three consecutive flights ran out of fuel and sent the highest-level “Mayday” distress signal to the tower, “a rare situation.”
On the afternoon of the 8th, a Dewi Air flight lost a wheel while landing at Taoyuan Airport. Image source: Taiwan Central Times News Network
According to the report, TW687 of Dewi Airways arrived at Taoyuan Airport from Jeju Island in South Korea on the afternoon of the 8th. When it landed on the north runway at 3:52 p.m., the right main wheel detached. The plane safely glided to its landing position, and the crew on board was safe, but tire fragments were left on the runway. Due to flight safety considerations, the airport immediately closed the north runway for inspection and cleaning. The closure time was about 1 hour and 40 minutes, during which it could only rely on the south runway for takeoff and landing, causing increased pressure on flight scheduling.
According to the air traffic control communication records released by “TWSkyWave Air Radio”, after 6:50 p.m. on the 8th, the number of flights waiting to land in the air increased. Changrong Airlines Flight BR392 was the first to inform the tower tower of the fuel emergency at 6:52:20 and declared “Mayday”, requesting priority landing. Less than 6 minutes later, another Changrong Airlines Flight BR007 sent the same distress signal at 6:57:50. At 7 p.m. that evening, Hong Kong Airlines Flight HX26, which was originally scheduled to land at 6:20, was still unable to land due to long wait, calling “Mayday” three times consecutively in the communication, stating that the fuel situation was urgent.
The Taoyuan Airport Company said that the airport‘s north runway resumed normal takeoff and landing at 5:35 p.m. on the 8th. Initial statistics showed that about 14 flights were affected, with a delay of about 20 minutes. The three flights that were in a fuel emergency were all able to land smoothly under the immediate coordination and guidance of air traffic controllers, without causing an accident.
As for the matter of the Dewi Air tyre detaching, Taoyuan Airport Company said it will further investigate the cause of the tyre detaching and the flight scheduling situation at the time.