The wire service reported that “the charred fuselage of the plane appeared to no longer be burning”.
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Other flights were turned round to their departure airports or diverted to Dubai World Central, Sharjah, Al Ain, Fujairah, Bahrain and Muscat airports.
Asked about the cause of the crash, Sheikh Ahmed said the investigations are still ongoing, stressing “all required maintenance and security checks on the plane were done in the past as scheduled”.
“It was actually really terrifying. As we were landing there was smoke coming out in the cabin”, passenger Sharon Maryam Sharji tol AAP. “We had taxied and stopped right next to where it was happening and people in my plane were just saying “oh my god” and “get us off this plane”, she said.
However, one firefighter attending the blaze was killed. “All passengers and crew were safely evacuated”, the Dubai media office tweeted after the accident. Passengers can be heard yelling “Jump!”
Pictures from the scene show the Boeing 777 billowing smoke then erupting into flame as it sits on the tarmac, just moments after all 300 passengers and crew escaped from the cabin.
Officials hailed the heroism of the Dubai Airports firefighter, identified as Jassim Al Baloushi from Ras Al Khaimah, who “lost his life while saving the lives of others”, according to a statement from the General Civil Aviation Authority.
The pilots were Emirati and Australian and each had over 7,000 hours’ flight experience, Sheikh Ahmed said.
After the plane caught fire on landing, airline staff “opened all emergency exits and guided us out”, Kochikutty said. Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum tweeted residents were “proud of our youth and their sacrifices while performing their duties in protecting lives and saving people”. There were 282 passengers and 18 crew on board.
The area has been cordoned off and it is understood all passengers were escorted from the flight.
Some unconfirmed reports suggest the crew were making a normal, rather than an emergency approach, when air traffic controllers told them to abandon the landing and start climbing again, for unknown reasons. Dubai airport shut down shortly after the 12:45 p.m. crash and reopened at 6:30 p.m. on a restricted basis, giving priority to arriving flights.
Flights from Sydney to Dubai, which included the codeshared Emirates EK413 and Qantas flight QF8413, were cancelled on Wednesday night. The flights had been due to depart at 9.10pm.
According to the airline, 20 nationalities were represented among the flight’s passengers and crew – 226 Indian nationals, 24 Brits, 11 Emiratis, six USA citizens and six Saudis. The airline confirmed that everyone on board was safe and accounted for.
Emirates is the largest single operator of the Boeing 777, as well as the Airbus A380 superjumbo, and expanded its fleet to 250 aircraft a year ago.
The plane had taken off from Trivandrum International Airport in Thiruvananthapuram, which is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala.
Krishna Bhagavathula, who was at the airport, wrote on Twitter that the flames had burned through the top of the aircraft before being brought under control.
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Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, was closed for several hours as emergency crews cleared the incident.
