Air traffic at Songshan Airport in Taipei was temporarily disrupted yesterday because of technical problems involving two Uni Air (立榮航空) aircraft.
Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Deputy Director-General Lin Shinn-der (林信得) said that flight number B7-315 was scheduled to leave Taipei for Nangan (南竿) Airport in Matsu at 2:32pm.
However, shortly after takeoff the captain of the aircraft realized that pressure inside the right landing gear was producing abnormal readings.
The aircraft was then asked to return to Songshan and landed safely at 3:02pm.
All 56 passengers on board took the next flight to Matsu.
After airport officials found signs of lacerations on the tire, the airport was closed for 19 minutes while staff searched for objects or debris on the runway that may have caused the damage.
As no debris had been found, the tire would be sent back to the manufacturers for investigation, officials said.
The runway reopened at 3:21pm.
Meanwhile, flight number URA 856 to Taitung had to postpone its scheduled flight at 2pm after a hydraulic oil leak was reported in a pipe connected to one of the aircraft’s brakes. All 73 passengers were asked to disembark at 2:20pm before reboarding the flight at 3:10pm after the problem had been addressed.
Another scheduling delay meant the Taitung flight eventually left at 3:50pm.
In related news, CAA is planning to expand the airport in Kinmen to accommodate travelers coming to Taiwan proper via the “small links” connecting Kinmen to Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province.
The airport was originally designed with a maximum capacity of 1.05 million passengers a year. Last year, however, the opening of cross-strait links led the number of travelers to surge to 1.72 million.
The project would help expand the capacity to 2.3 million a year, the CAA said.
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