Dramatic pictures and video posted on social media, purportedly of the crash-landing, showed a thick plume of black smoke rising from the top of a burning aircraft on a runway.
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All 282 passengers and 18 crew members survived but a firefighter battling the blaze died. Thirteen people had minor wounds.
Qantas says engineers inspected the aircraft overnight and fixed the fault, but passengers have lamented the delay to their travel plans.
Passengers then throw themselves down inflatable slides, as a voice in the background screams “Jump!”
Passengers can be heard shouting and children screaming as they evacuate the plane, with many also stopping to collect their bags from the overhead lockers before being ordered by the crew to leave their belongings behind.
Now according to Michael Rudolph, head of aviation regulation and safety at the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), he said that for every minute the airport stays shut, it costs the Dubai economy $1m – that’s a $1million a minute.
Passengers on board said the pilot told them there was a problem with the landing gear and that he would be making an emergency landing.
According to an Emirates statement, the passengers and crew on the flight hailed from 20 different countries, and included 226 Indians, 24 Britons, 11 Emiratis, and six each from the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Bilkulonline.com, New Delhi, Aug 4: Some of the major Indian passenger carriers on Thursday cancelled their scheduled operations to Dubai due to the unavailability of runway at the Dubai International Airport. Some flights were being redirected to the city-state’s second airport, Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central.
In a press conference, Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum said he didn’t want to “jump to conclusions” on what had caused the fire and subsequent explosion.
Dubai is the world’s largest air hub in terms of global passengers, and is the base for Emirates, from where it serves more than 153 destinations.
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Emirates, which began operations in 1985, has never had a fatal accident with any of its aircraft.
