Hundreds of passengers miraculously
escaped after an Emirates flight skidded on a runway and burst into flames
Wednesday at Dubai International Airport.
But a firefighter was killed while
trying to battle the inferno, the Dubai governments’ media office said.
Dramatic images showed fire and
thick black smoke billowing from the stricken Boeing 777 shortly after it came
to a stop out on the runway.
There were no fatalities among the
282 passengers and 18 crew members on board, Emirates said.
"Emirates can confirm that
today, 3 August 2016, flight EK521 traveling from Trivandrum International
Airport in Thiruvananthapuram, India to Dubai has been involved in an accident
at Dubai International Airport," the airline said in a statement.
The majority of those on board were
Indian nationals, it added.
The aircraft left Trivandrum
International Airport at 10:19 a.m. and was scheduled to land at 12:50 p.m. in
Dubai.
Once emergency response teams
managed to extinguish the fire, it was clear how deadly this accident could
have been: The entire top half of the aircraft's fuselage was missing, with the
belly of the plane slumped on the tarmac.
While the cause of the accident is
not yet clear, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said images of the
airliner could indicate that the front landing gear collapsed and that the
plane slid. That would possibly lead to a fire, he said.
Emirates, which began operations in
1985, has never had a fatal accident with any of its aircraft.
"Airlines plan for this sort of
thing. They have emergency plans in place. The idea is that you have to be able
to evacuate an aircraft within 90 seconds if there is an accident on the
ground," said Quest. "And this clearly appears to be what has
happened."
Dramatic images showed fire and
thick black smoke billowing from the stricken Boeing 777 shortly after it came
to a stop out on the runway.
There were no fatalities among the
282 passengers and 18 crew members on board, Emirates said.
"Emirates can confirm that
today, 3 August 2016, flight EK521 traveling from Trivandrum International
Airport in Thiruvananthapuram, India to Dubai has been involved in an accident
at Dubai International Airport," the airline said in a statement.
The majority of those on board were
Indian nationals, it added.
The aircraft left Trivandrum
International Airport at 10:19 a.m. and was scheduled to land at 12:50 p.m. in
Dubai.
Once emergency response teams
managed to extinguish the fire, it was clear how deadly this accident could
have been: The entire top half of the aircraft's fuselage was missing, with the
belly of the plane slumped on the tarmac.
While the cause of the accident is
not yet clear, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said images of the
airliner could indicate that the front landing gear collapsed and that the
plane slid. That would possibly lead to a fire, he said.
Emirates, which began operations in
1985, has never had a fatal accident with any of its aircraft.
"Airlines plan for this sort of
thing. They have emergency plans in place. The idea is that you have to be able
to evacuate an aircraft within 90 seconds if there is an accident on the
ground," said Quest. "And this clearly appears to be what has
happened."
Boeing,
meanwhile, released a statement saying it was aware of the Emirates Airline
Flight EK521 accident in Dubai. "We are thankful all aboard were evacuated
safely. A Boeing technical team is standing by to launch in support of the U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board," it said.
Emirates said it expected an 8-hour
network-wide delay in its operations.
All flights departing from Dubai
International Airport were delayed for several hours, and all incoming flights
were being diverted to other airports, the Dubai government media office
tweeted.
By Wednesday evening, departure
flights had resumed, the media office said.
According to Quest, Dubai-based
Emirates is the largest airline in the world by available seat kilometers (ASK)
-- the measure of an airline's passenger carrying capacity -- which multiplies
seats available by distance flown.
Dubai (DXB) is currently the busiest
international airport for international passengers. -CNN
No comments:
Post a Comment