Hawaiian A330 High Speed Aborted Takeoff Due To Unstable Nose Wheel

A Hawaiian Airlines jet suffered a high speed rejected takeoff when departing from LAX, as reported by Beat of Hawaii, and there’s even video footage of it…

Hawaiian A330 aborts LAX takeoff at high speed

This incident happened on Friday, April 11, 2025, and involves Hawaiian Airlines flight HA33, scheduled to operate the 2,485-mile flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Maui (OGG). The flight was operated by a seven-year-old Airbus A330-200 with the registration code N361HA.

The flight prepared to depart more or less on time, shortly after the scheduled 7:45AM departure. The plane taxied out to runway 24L, and began its takeoff roll. However, as the plane accelerated through around 100 knots, the pilots made the decision to reject the takeoff.

What was the reason for the rejected takeoff? Apparently the pilots noticed an unusual vibration, due to an unstable nose wheel. The plane decelerated quickly, with smoke coming from the tires. The plane then vacated the runway and taxied to the gate.

Once at the gate, the plane was inspected, and of course the brakes also needed some time to cool down. The plane finally ended up taking off at 11:48AM, around four hours behind schedule, and arrived at 1:48PM, a little under four hours behind schedule.

The FAA has released the following statement about the incident, confirming that an investigation will take place:

“The crew of Hawaiian Airlines Flight 33 safely aborted takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport around 8 a.m. local time on Friday, April 11, due to an unstable nose wheel. The Airbus A330 was headed to Kahului Airport in Hawaii. The FAA will investigate.”

There’s video footage of the rejected takeoff

While 100 knots is considered a high speed rejected takeoff (usually 80 knots and above is considered high speed), that’s still well below the V1 speed, which is the maximum speed at which a rejected takeoff can be initiated in the event of an emergency (that’s closer to 150 knots on an A330, though it depends on a variety of factors).

There’s video footage of the rejected takeoff, which you can see below. In the air traffic control audio, you can hear the Hawaiian pilot say “Hawaiian 33, stop,” and then when asked if they need assistance, he responds “no assistance needed, just we’ll be off on the next exit.”

Runway 24L at LAX is 10,285 feet long, and based on the markers to the side of the runway, you can see that the plane stops with roughly 7,000 feet remaining (those signs with black numbers next to the runway represent how much runway is remaining, in thousands of feet).

The plane only took up a little more than one-third of the runway, and had plenty of room to spare. Of course some people may be thinking “well why didn’t they just slow down more gradually, given the amount of space they had,” since that would’ve been less bad for brakes.

Ultimately pilot procedures are all based on checklists, so there’s a certain procedure for high speed aborted takeoffs, and that’s what was followed. The goal is to stop as quickly and safely as possible. Pilots often have to make split second decisions, so there’s not really time for those kinds of conversations to take place between pilots.

Lastly, I’m curious what was actually wrong with the nose wheel. Of course pilots should always err on the side of caution, and it’s good that they followed their instincts. I’m just curious what was ultimately determined to be causing the vibration and unstable nose wheel, since that seems like an unusual maintenance issue.

Bottom line

A Hawaiian Airlines A330 rejects its takeoff at LAX, at roughly 100 knots. That’s considered a high speed aborted takeoff, and it was due to vibrations coming from the nose wheel, with what was ultimately determined to be an unstable nose wheel. The FAA is now investigating the incident.

What do you make of this Hawaiian A330 rejected takeoff?