Emirates suffered its worst accident in its three-decade history on Wednesday when a Boeing 777-300 flying in Thiruvananthapuram crash-landed in Dubai and burst into flames. But all 300 people on board were evacuated safely.
The long-haul Boeing 777 is known to be the safest planes in the sky and this crash-landing raised several questions. Was it due to pilot error? Was it the weather? Was there a technical glitch?
This is the picture that emerges from available information.
# Initial reports suggest the pilots did not declare an emergency to the Air Traffic Control, which indicated that there was no technical glitch before the crash.
# The weather at the Dubai airport was normal with 21 knots of wind speed; a Boeing 777 can easily land in 21 knots even if it's crosswind.
# Reports said the Emirates pilots wanted to go around while they were on their final path to landing. After getting approval from the ATC to do a missed approach, it seems the aircraft could not gather enough lift and stalled immediately. A stall is a condition in aerodynamics and aviation wherein the angle at which the air hits the wing is beyond a certain point such that plane loses the lift needed to fly.
# As the aircraft was ready to take off again the landing gear was retracted, which explains why the plane landed on its belly. Once the plane hit the ground, it was engulfed in flames, but fortunately all passengers escaped without major injuries.
But it would be difficult to pin point if it was completely a pilot error until official reports are out.
CNN-News18 Correspondent Nagarjun Dwarakanath is a trained commercial pilot
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