An Emirates Airline plane coming from India made an emergency landing and burst into flames at Dubai airport on Wednesday, the airline and the government reported.
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Twenty-four Britons were among those on board the Boeing 777-300.
The cause of the crash landing of the Emirates Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai flight here yesterday with 300 people on board remained a mystery today with no authentic word available even as reports suggested that the plane touched down without its landing gear out.
Sheikh Ahmed said the pilot was an Emirati with more than 7,000 hours of flight time and the aircraft had “all necessary inspection checks” before take-off.
He cautioned however that the readings are not as precise as those on the airplane’s own flight data recorder, and that investigators will need more information to determine what went wrong.
Dubai Airports has announced that operational teams across the terminals at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC) are doing their best to assist arriving and departing passengers.
Air India on Wednesday diverted nine of its Dubai-bound flights from different Indian cities to nearby airports like Sharjah and Al Maktoum International Airport.
A video has emerged on internet which shows passengers of the crashed Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai flight wasting time in pulling out their luggage before evacuating the flight, which had caught fire.
The airline said that it has already notified passengers about their respective flight status through various channels.
Fourteen other people were treated in hospital for their injuries.
“If there is a fire, or a risk of a fire, then the drill for every crew for every aeroplane flight in the world is to get the passengers off very fast, because if you don’t it’s a disaster”, he said.
Video posted online shows black smoke billowing from what looked like an Emirates jetliner lying on its belly on the runway.
The passengers and crew included 226 Indians.
Emirates is the largest single operator of the Boeing 777, as well as the Airbus A380 superjumbo, and expanded its fleet to 250 aircraft previous year.
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“The main priority remains with those involved and offering support to concerned family and friends”.
