It reportedly cost Dubai a staggering $330 million for shutting down for five and a half hours on Wednesday, following the crash landing of the Emirates flight from Thiruvananthapuram.
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Indian airlines cancelled or re-routed their flights bound for Dubai to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, after an Emirates aircraft crash-landed at the Dubai International Airport on Wednesday. Thirteen people had minor wounds.
Flight EK521 was flying out of India and was coming in to land in the United Arab Eremites when the pilot tried to abort the landing.
The reaction of passengers and crew on an Emirates jetliner, seconds after the plane had crash-landed and seconds before it the fuselage was engulfed in a ball of flame, is caught on video obtained by Reuters.
“We are arranging alternate mode of travel from these airports so that our passengers can reach Dubai city”, said SpiceJet.
According to air traffic control recordings obtained by the Aviation Herald, controllers at Dubai had reminded the crew of the Boeing 777 to lower the landing gear as it approached.
The airport authorities report that all 282 passengers and 18 crew members are safe. But a spokesperson for Dubai’s government told CNN that a firefighter named Jassim Essa Al-Baloushi was killed “while saving the lives of others”.
Video clips circulated on social media showed thick black smoke billowing from the centre of the plane, which was on ground.
All flights to the Dubai terminal have been diverted while emergency crews work at the scene.
Emirates airline announced on its Facebook page that it would waive cancellation, re-issuance or ebooking charges to passengers who had booked tickets before Wednesday. 14 people were admitted to hospital.
Officials in-charge of Dubai’s International Airport say they hope to be fully-operational again in the next few days following Thursday’s crash landing of an Emirates airlines jet.
“Our priority is now the health and safety of our passengers”, he added.
Contact has yet to be established with them as they are still in the emergency response room.
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“It was hard to open the emergency exit at first”, Bhaskar said.
