An Emirates flight from India crash-landed at Dubai International Airport on Wednesday, with all 300 people on board surviving the incident, the airline said. One firefighter was killed while responding to the emergency, according to Emirates chairman and CEO Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who also reported that 10 people were hospitalized.
Flight EK521 was approaching Dubai from Thiruvananthapuram in southern India when the crash-landing occurred at 12:45 p.m. local time. Emirates, the largest airline in the Middle East, confirmed that the 282 passengers and 18 crew members were safe and accounted for, though it provided few additional details about the sequence of events.
Al Maktoum later noted indications of wind shear, or a sudden downdraft, at the airport during the aircraft’s descent, but said it remained unclear whether the condition played any role. A passenger, Iype Vallikadan, told the Associated Press that the pilot had announced a problem with the landing gear as the plane neared Dubai and that an emergency landing would be carried out. After touchdown, cabin crew opened all emergency exits and evacuated everyone within minutes, the news agency reported.
Social media users described seeing smoke at the site, and images showed the aircraft ablaze on the runway. Among the passengers were six U.S. citizens, the airline said. The group also included 226 people from India, 24 from Britain, 11 from the United Arab Emirates, six from Saudi Arabia, five from Turkey and four from Ireland. Two passengers each came from Australia, Brazil, Germany, Malaysia and Thailand, with one each from Croatia, Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland and Tunisia.
Boeing said a technical team was ready to assist the investigation alongside the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Saif Mohamed Al Suwaidi, director general of Dubai’s General Civil Aviation Authority, tweeted that the agency had activated its investigation team in coordination with Emirates and Dubai Airport. “Our primary concern at this moment is the safety and well-being of all passengers and cabin crew,” he said.
Founded in 1985, Emirates has maintained a strong safety record. Dubai International Airport, the busiest in the region and last year handling 78 million passengers, reported that other flights faced delays of roughly six hours before operations resumed shortly before 7 p.m. local time.
The incident prompted an immediate response from airport and emergency crews. Authorities emphasized that the priority remained accounting for everyone involved and determining the precise causes of the crash-landing as the formal investigation proceeds.
