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UPS crash near Dubai airport was catastrophic

The UPS 747-400 which crashed two minutes after takeoff from Dubai airport on Friday had been ordered to go round and land at the military airfield in Al Minhd area which was closer.

The crew had indicated a fire and smoke build up in the flight deck immediately after takeoff. The wreckage was so fragmented that there was no tail left standing nor were the engines even remotely recognisable.

So far, there seems to be no real clue as to why the aircraft, one of 12 in the 216 strong UPS fleet which prides itself on being the first cargo carrier in North America to achieve full compliance with global noise abatement procedures should have crashed in such a catastrophic fashion.

Meanwhile, the Dubai Police located one of the plane’s black boxes (Cockpit Voice Recorder) in the wreckage during search and rescue operations on Saturday.

The freighter hit the ground just 400 metres from Emirates Road, a major traffic artery. The plane ostensibly stuck a deserted building used for car parking, swung around and exploded.

Saif Al Suwaidi, the Director-General of General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), said that the rescue team is still searching for the second black box which is the Flight Data Recorder and it marks all the positions and altitudes of the plane during its take-off and flight.

He said that more than 15 ambulance cars, a 70-member strong rescue team, and more than 10 water tanks took part in the operation to control the fire that cut a swathe of over 120 metres.

The position of the fan blades in the CF6-80C2 engines will indicate at what efficiency they were working on impact. The charred remains point to a nose down crash but that can only be confirmed after the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administrations reps along with the power plant manufacturers arrive in Dubai. Representatives of the US pilot’s guild will form part of the NTSB onsite team.

Suwaidi further said that the rescue team has continued their search from Friday night where they found the charred body of one of two pilots and it was sent to the General Department of Forensic Medicine. He said that the rescue team found the charred remains of the second pilot on Saturday afternoon and not on the night of the crash as earlier reported. Three hospitals had been immediately alerted and several beds kept ready the moment the crash information was received.

Two earlier 747 crashes that occurred in such a dramatic post-take off manner were the Air India 855 that dropped into the sea off Mumbai after gaining only 1,390 feet on new year’s 1978, the cause being a failed artificial horizon (attitude direction finder) that confused the captain and the co-pilot.

In a Lufthansa 747 crash at Nairobi in 1974 the crew initiated a take-off with the leading edge flaps retracted because the pneumatic system which operates them had not been switched on. The plane took off in a semi stalled situation.

The last 747 freighter crash was at Bogota, Colombia in July 2008. The aircraft was on a flight to Miami and crashed shortly after takeoff about 8km from the airport. The two crew members were killed. Four years prior to this an MK Airlines 747-200F was taking off from Halifax Canada to Zaragoza in Spain and crashed due to incorrect thrust setting on take off.

In the last 17 years Boeing has delivered more than 100 747F aircraft around the world.

amira@khaleejtimes.com