Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, was forced to suspend operations for nearly six hours yesterday after an Emirates passenger jet crash-landed and burst into flames in an incident that killed a firefighter.
Emirates said all 282 passengers and 18 crew on board were safely evacuated from the Boeing 777, which had come from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram. However, Dubai’s Civil Aviation Authority later announced a firefighter died tackling the blaze.
Footage posted online showed the aircraft sliding along a runway at about 12.45pm on one wing, with its engine apparently detached. A section of the right wing then appeared to explode. Fuel tanks are located in both wings and the fuselage of modern jets.