Black box found, DXB now "fully operational"

Dubai - Over 300 people had a miraculous escape on August 3 when the Boeing 777 aircraft made an emergency landing in Dubai.

 The black box of Emirates flight EK 521 has been retrieved.
This was confirmed at a press conference on Thursday evening by Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, and Chris Garton, EVP Operations, Dubai Airports.
It was recovered by a team from the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).
Over 300 people had a miraculous escape on August 3 when the Boeing 777 aircraft was involved in a landing incident in Dubai.
The flight was flying in from Thiruvananthapuram, India, when it caught fire upon landing.
The runway which was closed at Dubai International Airport as a result of the incident also reopened at 5.45pm on Thursday.
All facilities are now fully operational after a recovery period of 29 hours.
"The aircraft has been moved and the concentration now is to recover operations over the next few days," Griffiths said.
A total of 64 flights were diverted to neighbouring airports during the recovery period, and 242 flights - comprising 116 arrivals and 126 departures - were cancelled.
Speaking at the conference, Griffiths said all facilities were back to normal, and now it's just down to "logistics".
"We are prioritising the recovery of the passengers that are currently within the Terminal. As you can imagine there are a lot of people, a lot of crew and a lot of aircraft that are out of position, so for operation at Dubai International Airport to recover to normal schedule, it will take a little time."
He confirmed that on Wednesday alone, 19,000 passengers had their travel plans disrupted as a result of the incident.
During the briefing, Griffiths mourned the loss of firefighter Jassim Eissa Mohammed Hassan Al Balooshi, who was part of the airport Civil Defence team.
Referring to him as a "brave soul who died in the line of duty", he added that one policeman and five other firefighters sustained minor injuries during the rescue attempt.
He also said only "light damage" was sustained to the runway due to the fact that the aircraft came to a rest on a non-operational area.
"Because of this, the on-ground airport maintenance team was able to fix the runway very quickly. The General Civil Aviation Authority were also able to gather evidence quickly, too."
Both Griffiths and Garton confirmed this was not the first such incident they had dealt with in their aviation career. 
"Within aviation and outside of aviation, Chris and I have been involved at a very senior level in managing in disruption to operations, in some cases where human life has been involved," Griffiths said.
However, he could not confirm how much the incident had cost the Dubai economy. 
kelly@khaleejtimes.com
 

• Dubai