1 firefighter killed, 300 passengers escape from burning Emirates airliner as it crash lands at Dubai Airport

 

An Emirates Boeing 777-300 A6-EMW plane EK521 flying from  Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala to Dubai has crash-landed around 12:45pm local time, at Dubai International Airport. Flights to and from the airport were suspended for several hours  as 21 flights were cancelled, but have now resumed. According to Emirates Airlines, there were 282 passengers and 18 crew on board from 20 countries most of them Indian, with 24 Britons, 11 from the United Arab Emirates, 6 from  the US, 6 from Saudi Arabia. People were screaming as there was smoke coming out in the cabin and had to use the slides to escape. This airline is a popular route for hundreds of thousands of Kerala residents who work in the gulf countries. Emirates is the Middle East’s biggest airline, and has an excellent safety record and is ranked seventh in a survey of the world’s safest airlines by AirlineRatings.com an independent plane safety website.  Passengers on board said the pilot told them there was a problem with the landing gear and that he would be making an emergency landing.