An Emirates Airbus A380-800, registration A6-EEA performing flight EK-806 from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) with 186 people on board, was descending towards Dubai, the crew observed no weather returns on their weather radar while descending through a scattered undercast layer of cloud, when the crew noticed a single cloud ahead. The pilot flying reduced the speed, the pilot monitoring requested to deviate around the cloud, however, about 3-4 seconds after passing the cloud the aircraft encountered up and down drafts resulting in 10 cabin crew receiving serious injuries. The aircraft continued for a landing without further incident on Dubai’s runway 30L.
The aircraft remained on the ground for 19 hours before resuming service.
On Sep 22nd 2015 the French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that the occurrence was rated an accident and is being investigated by United Arab Emirates’ GCAA.
The Aviation Herald