[saywhatagain]

One final thought re temperature and weight. Remember this is Malaysia where a cool night is 85 degrees and 90 percent humidity.

Yes 50 empty seats, but speculation is for the cargo weights to be high. Normal for that time and route of flight.

Another factor which is not and would not be known, is this area Southeast Asia has had a higher than normal incidents of tail strikes on takeoff. Due to many factors, mostly wrong weight calculated causing an early rotation. It would not surprise me nor anyone who understood the depth of that fact to find pilots are holding off rotation to prevent such an occurrence. Thereby leading to overlimiting the nose wheel tire speed.

It is always amazing to me to find and discover how one factor affects another. Thats why it is so fascinating

[zipper]

I'd be willing to bet they were nowhere close to tire limit speed at rotation. Nor were they particularly heavy for a 777.

As far as I know there are no published numbers yet on the takeoff weight. Maybe there will be.