Emirates Flight EK521 Crash lands in Dubai - On August 3rd 2016, Emirates flight EK521 arriving from India’s Trivandrum International Airport crash lands in Dubai International Airport after a fire broke off whilst in flight. Miraculously, all 300 passengers and crew survived the crash.
As the Emirates flight approached for its emergency landing, air traffic controllers advised the pilots of flight EK521 to lower their landing gear as they approached landing, according to Aviation Herald; yet as seen from images of the crash, flight EK521 crashed landed without deploying its landing gear.
Although all passengers and crew survived the incident, firefighter Jasim Issa Mohammed Hassan died fighting the fire at the scene of the crash. Firefighter Jasim Issa Mohammed Hassan was the only casualty of the crash of flight EK521.
During the evacuation, passengers are seen reaching for their carry-on bags in the overhead compartments, which held uproars throughout the media, calling these acts “shameful” and “sheer stupidity”. As advised in all commercial flights, the protocol “in case of an emergency, leave your luggage behind and make your way to the nearest exit” wasn’t taken into effect by the passengers of flight EK521.
The incident led Dubai International Airport to close all flights for four hours, which led to major delays in the world’s busiest airport hub as the flames were being controlled at the tarmac.
Though it’s too soon to confirm, expert David Learmount points at the possibility that hot weather could have played a factor in the crash of flight EK521, as it was 120 degrees Fahrenheit that day. In addition to the evidence presented, Iype Vallikadan, a reporter from Indian newspaper “Mathrubhumi News,” assured that a passenger said that the pilot made an announcement that he needed to make an emergency landing due to malfunctions in the landing gear.
Reports show that the passengers on the crashed Emirates flight EK521 included: 24 British, 6 American, 4 Irish, 2 Australian, 226 Indian, 11 from the UAE, 6 from Saudi Arabia, and 5 Turkish. The rest of the passengers were nationals from Germany, Thailand, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Bosnia, Herzegovina Lebanon, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland and Tunisia.
Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. also mourned the fallen firefighter through his official twitter account and reminded that Emirati should be proud of the fallen firefighter’s sacrifice of “performing his duty in protecting life and saving people.”
