Sources in Dubai airport said the pilot requested an emergency landing after a fire broke out in one of the Boeing 777’s engines.
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Emirates said the accident happened around 12:45 p.m. local time as Flight EK521 was arriving from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram.
Emirates officials said all 282 passengers and 18 crew on board were safely evacuated from the burning fuselage.
Photographs posted on social media showed a plane lying crumpled on its belly on the tarmac with black smoke pouring from its upper section.
All passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the aircraft by emergency response teams, according to the government.
“All passengers and crew are accounted for and safe”, read the statement, posted to Facebook.
None of the 300 people on board – including 24 Brits – are believed to have been injured and passengers have been evacuated. Emirates airline said it is expecting an eight-hour network delay due to Wednesday’s incident.
Early indications suggested the plane, a Boeing 777, was not at fault and other factors would have been involved, according to expert David Learmount. There was no official word on the cause, but media reports said the landing gear collapsed and the plane slid and exploded.
On April 9, 2004, an Emirates Airline Airbus en route from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Dubai was not able to successfully take off before reaching the end of the runway. Emirates Airline has not yet elaborated on the initial cause of the crash.
In Dubai International Airport’s gleaming Terminal 3, the home of Emirates, the typically bustling arrivals hall was hushed.
Dubai-based TV channel Al Arabiya said the crash-landing site was not on the main runway.
The Dubai government’s media office said on its Twitter account that all opeartions, including any departures, from Dubai International have been halted “until further notice”.
The world’s busiest global airport was forced to close for a few hours Wednesday after a flight made an emergency landing.
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Emirates is the largest single operator of the Boeing 777, as well as the Airbus A380 superjumbo, and has expanded its fleet to 250 aircraft past year.
