Foreign

Dubai airport shuts down after Emirates Airline flight crash lands

August 3, 2016

245

An Emirates plane with 300 people on board crash-landed and caught fire in Dubai on Wednesday, shutting down the busy airport, but the authorities said all the passengers were evacuated safely.

Footage on social media showed smoke billowing from the aircraft.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

“An Emirates plane coming from India has been involved in an accident on landing at Dubai International,” the government’s Dubai Media Office said on its Twitter account.

“All passengers were evacuated safely and no injuries have been reported so far,” it said.

All departures from Dubai International Airport have been halted “until further notice,” it added. Emirates confirmed the incident, saying that the plane was a Boeing 777.

“We can confirm flight EK521 from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai has been involved in an accident at Dubai International,” the carrier said on its Twitter account.

Emirates said it had “no further information on what may have caused the accident”. “Our priority remains with the passengers and crew involved,” it said.

Emirates said that there were 282 passengers and 18 crew members on board, including 226 Indians, 24 Britons and 11 Emirati nationals.

The airline had initially said that there were 275 passengers and crew on board.

The Aviation Herald reported the aircraft touched down during a go-around without its gear deployed.

Footage on social media showed thick black smoke coming out of the centre of the plane while the fuselage appeared to be lying on the runway with escape slides opened.

The Dubai Media Office said the fire “has been contained,” adding that emergency teams at the airport and Emirates are “well trained to deal with such incidents”.

The Twitter account of live air traffic monitor Flightradar24 confirmed takeoffs and landings at Dubai had been suspended because of the incident.