Emirates Flight 521

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emirates Flight 521
Boeing 777-31H, Emirates JP7102073.jpg

A6-EMW, the aircraft involved in the accident, taken in 2011 at Rome Fiumicino Airport
Accident summary
Accident type Wil be inspected
place Dubai International Airport
Dubai , United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates 
date 3rd August 2016
Fatalities 0
Survivors 300 (all)
Injured 13
Fatalities on the ground 1 (firefighter)
Aircraft
Aircraft type Boeing 777-300
operator Emirates
Mark A6-EMW
Departure airport Trivandrum International Airport
Thiruvananthapuram , IndiaIndiaIndia 
Destination airport Dubai International Airport
Dubai , United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates 
Passengers 282
crew 18th
Lists of aviation accidents

Emirates flight 521 ( flight number : EK521 ) is a scheduled flight of the Emirates from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala / India to Dubai , United Arab Emirates . On August 3, 2016, a Boeing 777-300 crashed on this flight at 12:45 p.m. local time while landing at Dubai International Airport . There were 282 passengers and 18 crew members on board.

All 300 people on board survived the crash landing and were successfully evacuated. 13 people were injured, 10 of them were taken to local hospitals and 3 were treated as outpatients at the airport. A firefighter was killed during the rescue operations. It was the first total loss of an aircraft operated by Emirates.

plane

The aircraft involved in the accident was a 13-year-old Boeing 777-31H with the aircraft registration A6-EMW, serial number 32700/434. The maiden flight took place on March 7, 2003, on March 28, 2003 it was delivered to Emirates with two Rolls-Royce Trent 892 engines. The plane was destroyed by the fire.

flight

On August 3, 2016, flight EK521 took off from Trivandrum International Airport at 10:34 am IST ( 05:04 am UTC ) with a 29-minute delay . The landing at Dubai International Airport was scheduled for 12: 44h Gulf Standard Time (GST, 08: 44UTC), 3 hours and 40 minutes after take-off.

From the point of view of air traffic control , the approach and landing on runway 12L proceeded normally. No emergency call was recorded on the audio recordings of the radio communication between flight EK521 and the tower. At 12:44 GST (08:44 UTC) the pilots announced that they would take off. The tower then instructed the EK521 crew to climb to 4,000 feet, which the pilots confirmed. A short time later, the air traffic controller alerted the airport fire brigade.

The aircraft slid along runway 12L on its fuselage and brushed the asphalt with its right wing. Engine number 2 on the right-hand side ( starboard ) was torn off. The plane caught fire and there were several significant explosions and thick black smoke. Fireman Jasim Issa Mohammed Hasan from Ras-al-Khaimah was killed in one of the explosions . The airport was then closed and incoming flights were diverted.

At the time of the accident, the temperature was 48 degrees Celsius and wind shear was reported.

Passengers and crew

There were 282 passengers and 18 crew members on board the aircraft. The captain is from Dubai, the copilot was the Australian Jeremy Webb. Mobile phone videos show that many passengers first looked for their hand luggage instead of immediately leaving the aircraft using the evacuation slides.

examination

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is responsible for investigating accidents in civil aviation. A corresponding investigation has been initiated in collaboration with Emirates Airlines, Boeing and Rolls-Royce . The flight data recorder and voice recorder were secured on August 4, 2016. According to the GCAA, the investigation will take three to five months.

Effects

After the accident, the airport was closed for five and a half hours. As a result, Emirates and Flydubai in particular had to cancel numerous flights. 23,000 passengers were affected. At 6:30 p.m. local time, the airport was reopened with initially only one runway in use. At the same time, Sharjah Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport were used as alternate airports, arriving flights were given priority over departures. On August 4th, Emirates and Dubai Airport announced that there would be numerous outages and delays for the next 48 hours. The affected runway 12L was repaired and could be put into operation again at 5:45 p.m. on the same day. From August 6, 72 hours after the accident, the airport was back to normal operations.

Accident report

On September 6, 2016, the aviation authority GCAA, responsible for the accident investigation, published a preliminary accident report.

This shows that the approach initially took place with a slight headwind, then with a strong tailwind. Five seconds before touchdown, the wind turned again towards the headwind. At 08: 37: 17h (UTC) the right landing gear touched down, approx. 1,100 meters after the threshold of runway 12L. Two seconds later, which gave runway awareness and advisory system , the acoustic warning "Long Landing" ( Long landing off) because the placement was carried far beyond the nominal touchdown point. At this point the aircraft had a displayed speed of 162 knots (300 km / h). Another second later the left landing gear touched down, the nose landing gear stayed in the air. At 08: 37: 23h, i.e. 6 seconds after touching down the left landing gear, the aircraft was back in the air and the captain began a go- around maneuver . The landing flaps were moved back from 30 to 20 degrees, the landing gear lever was set to "Retract" ("Up"). During the go-around maneuver, the aircraft reached a maximum height of 85 feet (approx. 26 meters), but at this point only had a speed of 134 knots (248 km / h). Because the speed was too low, the plane began to descend again. It was only at 08: 37: 35h, 12 seconds after the start of the go-around maneuver, that the thrust levers were pushed from idle to full throttle, but 3 seconds later the impact on the runway occurred with the landing gear half retracted. The aircraft slid over the runway and came to a standstill after about 800 meters.

The report does not reveal whether the pilots had pressed the TOGA button, which the automatic thrust control uses to bring the engines to the required power for the go-around maneuver. The "Flight Crew Operations Manual (FCOM)" (German about "Operating Manual for Flight Crews") of the Boeing 777-300 in the version used by Emirates states under Section 4.20.17 that the TOGA button can only be used if that Airplane is still in the air but cannot be activated after touchdown. In this case, the pilot must manually adjust the thrust levers to the required engine power. The fact that a go-around was attempted without even moving the thrust levers from the idle position makes it possible that the pilots relied on automatic throttle control and only noticed the error too late.

The final accident report was published on January 20, 2020. This confirms that the go-around was attempted using the TOGA automatic. However, it was not noticed by the crew that the right main landing gear briefly touched down on the runway during the float. As a result, the automatic thrust control was deactivated as designed.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Crash at the airport: One dead after a Boeing crash landing in Dubai. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved August 6, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Accident: Emirates B773 at Dubai on Aug 3rd 2016, touched down during go-around without gear, aircraft on fire. In: avherald.com. Retrieved August 6, 2016 .
  3. ^ Serious landing accident of a Boeing 777-300 in Dubai. In: aero.de. Retrieved August 6, 2016 .
  4. ^ A b Harro Ranter: ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 777-31H A6-EMW Dubai Airport (DXB). In: aviation-safety.net. Retrieved August 6, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Emirates (EK) # 521 ✈ 03.08.2016 ✈ TRV / VOTV - DXB / OMDB ✈ FlightAware. In: FlightAware. Retrieved August 6, 2016 .
  6. ↑ [REAL ATC] Emirates B777 CRASH then BURNT at Dubai OMDB! VASAviation, August 3, 2016, accessed August 6, 2016 .
  7. ↑ All 300 aircraft occupants survive crash landing - firefighter dies. In: www.tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved August 7, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Aussie pilot ran for life in fireball. Retrieved August 7, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Malayalam Full Movie 2015: Latest News Evacuation Video of Emirates Airlines flight EK 521 Crash Landing Dubai Airport. August 3, 2016, accessed August 7, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Emirates flight EK521 crash: Why passengers think about bags, not lives in emergency - Firstpost. August 5, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016 (American English).
  11. ↑ Alexander Cornwell, Staff Reporter: Investigators recover EK521 recorders. August 4, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Alexander Cornwell, Staff Reporter; Shweta Jain, Deputy Business Editor: Exclusive: Emirates EK521 investigation to take 3 to 5 months. August 4, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Kelly Clarke and Nivriti Butalia: Emirates incident: Guess what costs a million dollars a minute? - Khaleej Times. In: khaleejtimes.com. Retrieved August 7, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Sneha May Francis: Flydubai cancels all flights. Retrieved August 7, 2016 (UK English).
  15. ↑ Gulf News: Dubai airport day 2: Flight cancellation and warning of delays. August 4, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2016 .
  16. ↑ a b Air Accident Investigation Sector Accident - Preliminary Report - AAIS Case No: AIFN / 0008/2016. Preliminary accident report from GCAA. In: Web presence of the General Civil Aviation Authority GCAA of the United Arab Emirates. General Civil Aviation Authority, August 3, 2016, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Opening report : Accident when attempting to go around late. In: aero.de. Retrieved September 7, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Could Automation Kill Us? - Avgeekery.com - We Love All Things Aviation. In: www.avgeekery.com. Retrieved September 9, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Accident Final Report - AAI Case No: AIFN / 0008 / 2016th Final accident report from GCAA. In: Web presence of the General Civil Aviation Authority GCAA of the United Arab Emirates. General Civil Aviation Authority, January 20, 2020, accessed February 7, 2020 .