A Zhejiang Loong Air (GJ) cargo flight heading toward Kunming Wednesday morning made an emergency landing at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) after the aircraft suffered tyre-bursts while taking off, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Boeing 737-300 aircraft, Registration B-2954, performing cargo flight CDC8712 from Hangzhou to Kunming with three people on board, departed at 5:36 a.m. and was climbing out of Hangzhou when a runway inspection found tyre debris on the departure runway, which was identified to belong to the B733 aircraft.

The crew was informed about the tyre debris, decided to return to Hangzhou and performed two low approaches to have the landing gear inspected from the ground which confirmed only wheel hubs left on both right main tyres.

The crew burned off fuel and the plane stopped on Hangzhou airport's runway 22 about four hours after departure, with emergency services on standby.

Loong Air confirmed the incident later in a statement, saying a cargo flight GJ8721 (B733/B-2954) from its hub to Kunming made an emergency landing at Hangzhou airport after the plane suffered a suspected tyre-burst at 6:10 a.m.

The airline, together with Hangzhou airport, initiated an emergency response to the incident and guaranteed the aircraft landed safely at 9:55 a.m.

Hangzhou airport closed one runway at 10:17 a.m. which is expected to reopen at 12:00 p.m., according to VariFlight, China's leading flight status service provider.

Zhejiang Loong Air cargo aircraft landed safely at Hangzhou airprot after tyre-burst on Dec. 3. Photo by CCTV: