Hong Kong airport runway closed due to damaged plane

One of two runways at Hong Kong International Airport was closed on Monday, delaying flights, due to a damaged cargo plane on the runway that made an emergency return to the airport after taking off in the early morning, the airport said.

"A freighter made an emergency turn back and had a tyre burst incident upon landing. The malfunctioning cargo jet is currently stationed on the north runway," a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Airport Authority said in a statement that was still valid on Monday afternoon.

The airport was not able to say when the runway would re-open. Its website showed dozens of departures had been delayed since early morning.

An Atlas Air cargo plane bound for Anchorage, Alaska took off from the airport at about 4 a.m. on Monday (2000 GMT on Sunday) before returning to the airport and landing less than four hours later, flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows.

The Boeing 747 freighter was flying over Taiwan when it turned back to Hong Kong, the tracking data shows.

U.S.-headquartered Atlas Air did not immediately respond to a request for comment.