Emirates Airline Boeing 777-31H plane crash
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Updated on
The Boeing 777-300 operated by Emirates Airlines took off from Thiruvananthapuram, India, for a passenger flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 282 passengers and 18 crewmember were onboard. The plane crashed on landing at Dubai international airport. All occupants evacuated via slides, 13 passengers received minor injuries during the evacuation. A fire-fighter attending to the aircraft was killed. The aircraft burned down completely.
The Boeing 777 was on final approach at Dubai airport. The aircraft performed a normal approach, and there was no emergency declared. During the approach and until the landing, the aircraft encountered windshear conditions, with a wind changing from a headwind of 8 knots to a tailwind of 16 knots.
The aircraft landed long, both main landing gear touched down, and the crew decided to go around. A few seconds later the aircraft was airborne again, the crew retracted the landing gear and climbed to 85 feet above the runway with the speed decaying to 134 kts. Both flight crew members noticed the decaying speed, the first officer called Check Speed. The aircraft descended again with the landing gear in transit into the UP position. 3 seconds prior to impact with the runway the thrust levers were moved from IDLE to full forward. 2 seconds later the engines began to respond, another second the Aircraft aft fuselage impacted the runway at 125 kts, with a nose-up pitch angle of 9.5 degrees, and at a rate of descent of 900 feet per minute. This was followed by the impact of the engines on the runway. The three landing gears were still in transit to the retracted position.
As the Aircraft slid along the runway, the No.2 engine-pylon assembly separated from the right hand wing. An intense fuel fed fire was observed to start in the area of the damaged No.2 engine-pylon wing attachment. The Aircraft continued to slide along the runway on the lower fuselage, the outboard right-hand wing, and the No.1 engine. An incipient fire started on the underside of the No.1 engine.
About a minute later the commander transmitted a Mayday Call and advised they were evacuating. Fire fighters arrived about one minute after the aircraft came to a stop and began to immediately apply foam. All the occupants evacuated the aircraft.
One cabin crew received serious, 21 passengers, another cabin crew and the first officer received minor injuries.
Approximately nine minutes after the Aircraft came to rest, a firefighter was fatally injured as a result of the explosion of the centre fuel tank.
