An Emirates airline flight coming from India crash-landed at Dubai International Airport on Wednesday, the Dubai government media office said on its official Twitter account.
The closed the aiport and all take-offs and landings were halted, according to Flight Radar.
No injuries were immediately reported.
Pictures posted on social media that purported to be of the incident showed a thick black plume of smoke rising from the top of a burning plane.
“We can confirm flight EK521 from Thiruvananthapuram [in Kerala] to Dubai has been involved in an accident at Dubai International,” Emirates said on Twitter.
“There were 275 passengers and crew on board. Our main priority now is the safety and well-being of all involved.”
Alex Macheras, a London-based aviation expert, told Al Jazeera that the event was unusual adding that “in terms of departures, those wishing to fly out of Dubai, well, I think they are in for a long wait”.
“Emirates operate an entirely longhaul fleet … this aircraft was coming in on a steady and normal textbook approach to the airport, which is very congested. Looking at these shocking photos, the landing gear is nowhere to be seen.”
Aljazeera
An Emirates Airlines Boeing 777-300, registration A6-EMW performing flight EK-521 from Thiruvananthapuram (India) to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) with 275 people on board, was on final approach to Dubai’s runway 12L at 12:41L (08:41Z) but attempted to go around from low height. The aircraft however did not climb, but after retracting the gear touched down on the runway and burst into flames. Passengers are being reported evacuated and safe. The aircraft burned down completely.
The airline reported: “Emirates can confirm that an incident happened at Dubai International Airport on 3rd August 2016 at about 12.45pm local time.”
United Arab Emirates Government confirmed an Emirates aircraft arriving from India suffered a crash landing at Dubai Airport, all passengers have been evacuated, there are no reports of injuries.
According to ATC recordings the aircraft performed a normal approach and landing, there was no priority or emergency declared. Upon contacting tower tower reminded the crew of lowering the gear and cleared the aircraft to land. Another approach reported on tower frequency. About 2 minutes after EK-521 reported on tower, the crew reported going around, tower instructed the aircraft to climb to 4000 feet, the crew acknowledged climbing to 4000 feet, a few seconds later tower instructs the next arrival to go around and alerts emergency services. The position of the aircraft is described near the end of the runway.
The Aviation Herald
