Problem with runway in Sydney tonight?

[moolooman]

A friend was on Qantas QF 580 (747) 14/7/07 (Perth Sydney) tonight which flew into Sydney at 2010, instead of landing the flight diverted to Melbourne because of a "problem with the runway" at Sydney. It refuelled and flew back to Sydney one hour later, breaking curfew at 2330.

What was the problem at Sydney? And is it normal just to break curfew to avoid having to put pax up in accom?? If so what is the fine?

[pullup hard]

MM,
just landed SYD around 1945-there was a Virgin 737 stuck on intersection 16R/25. Apparently it had a blocked brake on one main wheel on landing, making it veer to one side and difficult to control.
We landed our A345 on 16L which was the only available option, since the 737 was blocking the other RWYs. 16L gives you about 22oom LDA and that is probably insufficient for a 747 and therefore athe most probable reason for a diversion.
We taxied by the 737-she looked all ok, no damage- a bit off- centerline with cabin lights on- after about 40 minutes she was already towed away.
Cheers,
PUH

[pa28180]

PUH
I was on a Singapore Air 747 last night (Sin-Syd), we did 3 large orbits over Goulburn that took up 30 minutes then @ 1750 a right base for 16L, 747 arrived firmly planted just after the keys and stopped just short after heavy braking, did a long taxi back to intnl terminal with many 5 min stops, 16R was clear but with a big collection of red flashing lights to the south west of the field, overall the delay was about one hour, us passengers were treated as mushrooms - no info given by crew.
bugsmasherdriver

[Taildragger67]

Crikey...

I thought 16L/34R was built only to withstand aircraft of up to 767-300 weight... I could understand there'd be a bit of a margin in that so you might get away with 330s fairly happily and the odd 340 (but a 345?); but a 744 - :eek: even if fairly empty!

No problem in terms of length, it's 8-odd thousand feet so similar to 07/25 which jumbos have used for years... just the strength issue.

[Capt Fathom]

16L / 34R is not used by the heavies for normal ops in order to keep the noise lobby happy.
RWY 16L is about 200m shorter than 07/25
and
RWY 27/09 in MEL is shorter again!

So as mentioned by Dragger, length is not the issue! :uhoh:

[duknweev]

The aircraft involved was taking off I'd heard ... not sure what exactly happened with the gear but the runway surface was gouged at the intersection ... repair crew hustled up but repair truck broke down enroute to scene (!! Murphy again !!) ... runways 16R/25 not available for approximately 1 hr 45 minutes.

Several 747s landed 16L in the meantime - QF580 was the only one to divert (to MEL with M.E.L. limits???)