This botched landing became one of the most infamous incidents in Emirates’ history.
The 3 August 2016 incident from the Middle East’s largest airline resulted in a destroyed Boeing 777-300ER and the death of one firefighter.
After the crash landing, Emirates would revamp its safety training and improvements, but memories like this can last a lifetime. Here’s the story of Emirates Flight 521.
‘There Was Smoke Coming Out of the Cabin’
Emirates Flight 521 attempted to land at 1244 local time at Runway 12L at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in the United Arab Emirates. Two hundred eighty-two passengers and 18 crew members were arriving from Trivandrum International Airport (TRV) in Thiruvananthapuram, India.
The captain was an anonymous 34-year-old Emirati who had been with the airline since 2001. His first officer, Jeremy Webb from Australia, was 37 and joined the airline in 2014.
Prior to landing in Dubai, the crew received a wind shear warning from a local airport ATC. Wind shear is an abrupt change in wind speed and direction.
The Boeing 777 touched down 1,100 meters beyond Runway 12L’s threshold, well beyond the optimal zone. A ‘LONG LANDING’ warning triggered inside the cockpit. The pilots opted to abort the landing, but critical mistakes followed.
As the landing gear began to retract, the engines failed to spool up in time since the auto-throttle didn’t properly engage after touchdown. Failing to climb again, the aircraft dropped back down to the Earth and skidded 800 meters towards the end of the runway.
One of the fuel tanks ruptured during the botched landing, causing an explosion and engulfing the plane in flames.
One of the passengers Sharon Maryam Sharji recalled the events to Reuters:
‘It was actually really terrifying. As we were landing, there was smoke coming out in the cabin…People were screaming, and we had a very hard landing. We left by going down the emergency slides, and as we were leaving on the runway, we could see the whole plane catch fire. It was horrifying.’
A Successful Escape
Evacuation began at once, with 10 of 11 escape slides deploying successfully. All passengers and crew exited within 90 seconds. Thirty-nine injuries were reported, including impact injuries and burns from the failed landing. Four people sustained serious injuries but have since recovered.
Jassim Essa Al-Baloushi, a 27-year-old firefighter assigned to douse the Boeing’s flames, unfortunately died on the job.
The crash caused several hours of delays for outgoing flights at DXB. Flights en route to DXB diverted to nearby airports.
Eight days after the botched landing, Emirates offered $7,000 to each passenger on board, which covered injuries and luggage loss. That’s a total of $1,974,000 split among 282 passengers. The flight’s airfares were also reportedly refunded.
DXB reportedly lost $1 million per minute as it closed due to the crash.
A Three-Year Investigation
The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), associated with Rolls-Royce and Boeing, led a meticulous investigation, releasing its final report published on 6 February 2020. The report identifies a total of two causes of the botched landing:
- The pilots failed to increase the engine thrust soon enough.
- The pilots failed to observe the flight instrumentation parameters.
The report also concluded with the following:
‘The flight crew reliance on automation and lack of training in flying go-arounds from close to the runway significantly affected the flight crew performance in a critical flight situation which was different to that experienced by them during their simulated training flights.’
The report prompted Emirates to revise its pilot training regimen, focusing on go-around procedures, manual flying skills, and automation management.
Following the investigation, what happened to Flight 521’s pilots is unknown. The crash, however, didn’t threaten Emirates’ operations, as it continues to have strong financial backing and government support.
