An Emirates flight from India with 300 people on board crash landed at Dubai's main airport Wednesday, sending black smoke billowing into the air and halting all flights at the Middle East's busiest airport. A firefighter died while responding to the blaze, but none of the passengers or crew on board were killed.
Shocking footage has emerged from inside the cabin of an Emirates jet seconds before it exploded into a fireball after crash-landing at Dubai's international airport.
Screams of terrified passengers can be heard as the cabin crew forced open the emergency exit doors, desperately trying to get all 300 people on board out safely.
But travellers can be seen scrambling to collect their luggage as the cabin fills with smoke, with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
As the woman holding the camera guides her children to the emergency exit, where passengers were throwing themselves down inflatable slides, a voice can be heard shouting for her to "jump, jump, jump".
She continues filming throughout her dramatic escape, and as she flees the wreckage the camera captures a glimpse of the flaming engine.
Minutes later, as passengers fled the destroyed plane, it exploded into a fireball that claimed the life of hero firefighter Jasim Issa Mohammed Hassan.
The top of the Emirates plane was completely destroyed by fire after emergency landing. Photo / Twitter
Speaking to reporters in Dubai, Emirates Group CEO and chairman Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said 10 people were hospitalised after the incident, but stressed that all passengers were safely evacuated before the plane was engulfed in a fireball. He said one firefighter died trying to put out the fire.
Emirates said the accident happened around 12.45pm local time as Flight EK521 was arriving from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram. It confirmed that "all passengers and crew are accounted for and safe," but gave no details of what went wrong.
"We do not have ... all the information. Thankfully there (were) no fatalities among our passengers and crew," Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, the airline's chairman and CEO, said in a video statement . "Our thoughts are with everyone involved."
The Boeing 777-300 was carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew members from 20 different countries, according to the airline. Those onboard included 226 Indians, 24 Britons, 11 Emiratis, and six each from the United States and Saudi Arabia.
It emerged that pilots tried to abort the landing moments before the jet crashed, telling air traffic controllers they wanted to 'go around'.
Controllers at Dubai International had had to remind pilots on the Boeing 777 to lower the landing gear as it came into land, according to the respected Aviation Herald, which monitors air accidents.
Footage from the latest video shows the plane's wing bent at an alarming angle above the flaming engine as the belly of the plane appears to be in contact with the runway itself - strongly suggesting that the crash was due to a fault in the landing gear.
Another witness, Ibrahim Thomas from Thiruvananthapuram, was sitting in the front row window seat of the flight and said he was lucky to make it out alive.
"I was sitting in the front row window seat. I saw the right side engine caught fire and then it was in the cabin. In another five minutes the emergency doors were opened by the crew," he said in a phone interview.
When asked if he thought he would die, he replied: "Yes, yes, yes."
Other witnesses said they saw smoke coming from the plane before it touched down at the world's busiest airport while one expert has suggested the extreme 50C weather today may have been a factor in the crash and there were reports of powerful gusts of wind at the time.
All of those on board, including 24 Britons and six Americans, were led to safety at Dubai International Airport, minutes before the Boeing 777 was completely destroyed in a massive fireball.
An image showing passengers apparently running from the fire has emerged on social media. Photo / Facebook
Dramatic footage emerged of the passengers and crew fleeing for their lives down a runway just minutes before the Emirates jet exploded after crash-landing at Dubai Airport.
Video shows them sprinting to the safety of a hangar as thick black smoke billows up from the stricken aircraft, which had flown from Trivandrum International Airport in India.
Incredibly, all on board, including the 18 crew, escaped through emergency exits as the cabin filled with smoke and were able to sprint to safety moments before the plane exploded into flames.
Passengers have revealed how the flight came down suddenly before bouncing upwards on landing.
One told Asianet: "In no time the cabin was filled with smoke. There was no announcement. The emergency door was forced open. Many of us now feel we have breathing problems because of the smoke."
Photographs of the incident showed a plane lying crumpled on its belly on the tarmac with black smoke pouring from its upper section while more video shows passengers running to safety at the terminal having been evacuated.
The captain is believed to have sent out and emergency signal in the moments before the plane was preparing to land.
