Emirates' 2016 Dubai flight incident report released

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emirates airline, dubai airport fire landing, 2016 emirates incident, dxb

Dubai - The plane had caught fire shortly after landing.

By Waheed Abbas

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Published: Thu 6 Feb 2020, 11:00 PM

Last updated: Sat 8 Feb 2020, 11:25 AM

The Emirates incident investigation report has recommended to enhance the pilot training and assessment system to include procedures for managing evaluator comments on pilot performance including comments on pilots who have met the competency standard.
The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) released its report on the 2016 incident on Thursday, saying that pilots had failed to check engine's settings during the crash of flight EK521 in 2016, according to the final investigation report.
Emirates flight EK521 was a scheduled international passenger flight from the Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai on August 3, 2016. The aircraft, carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew, had made a hard landing at Dubai International Airport (DXB).
Also read: Compensation announced for passengers in 2016
All the passengers were safely evacuated before plane later caught fire. One firefighter lost his life in the fire-fighting attempt.
"The flight crew reliance on automation and lack of training in flying go-arounds from close to the runway surface. 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 GCAA said in its final report.
"During the attempted go-around, except for the last three seconds prior to impact, both engine thrust levers, and therefore engine thrust, remained at idle. Consequently, the aircraft's energy state was insufficient to sustain flight. The flight crew did not effectively scan and monitor the primary flight instrumentation parameters during the landing and the attempted go-around," according to the findings revealed in the report.
The GCAA report said that the flight crew did not take corrective action to increase engine thrust because they omitted the engine thrust verification steps.
The GCAA report advised Emirates to enhance the normal go-around and missed approach training standards, which should include simulated scenarios for a normal go-around initiated close to the runway and after touchdown when the takeoff/go-around (TO/GA) switches are inhibited.
Adel Al Redha, Emirates Chief Operating Officer, said the aim of aviation safety investigations is to understand all contributing factors and ensure appropriate measures are taken by the relevant parties and agencies to prevent a re-occurrence of the incident.
"In addition to actions identified in the final report, Emirates has also proactively taken the appropriate steps to further enhance our operating procedures based on our own internal investigation, as well as on a thorough review of the Preliminary Report and Interim Report," Al Redha added.
"Maintaining safe operations is a top priority at Emirates, and we are committed to the continuous review and improvement of our operations," he added.
waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com
(Read detailed report here)


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