Emirates jet burns after ‘accident’ at Dubai

Agencies

Emirates jet burns after ‘accident’ at Dubai; 300 aboard safe An Emirates airline flight from India to Dubai crash-landed at Dubai’s main airport Wednesday, but everyone who was aboard survived, the airline said.

All 282 passengers and 18 crew were safe and accounted for, it said. Dubai-based Emirates, the Mideast’s biggest airline, said the accident happened at 12:45 p.m. local time as Flight EK521 was arriving from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram.

Social media users reported smoke at the scene and images appeared to show a plane on fire on the airport's runway.

Iype Vallikadan, one of the passengers, said the pilot said as the plane neared Dubai that there was a problem with the landing gear and that he would make an emergency landing, the Associated Press reported.

The cabin crew opened all the emergency exits and everyone aboard was evacuated within minutes of landing, the news agency said. The vast majority of the passengers were Indian, and six U.S. citizens were among the 20 nationalities aboard, the airline said.

Source: USA TODAY