FlyDubai jet crash marks first fatal incident for UAE airlines

Debris of crashed flydubai plane.A Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employee, right, escorts a, March 19, 2016. An airliner from Dubai crashed early Saturday while landing in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in strong winds, Russian officials said. (AP Photo)

UAE-based airlines have a strong safety record with no casualty in any incident reported so far except flydubai's latest crash landing in Russia, which took the lives of all 62 people on board.
Flydubai's fleet is dominated by relatively young 737-800 aircraft and the same model crashed in southern city of Russia on Saturday.
The pilot of the flight FZ981, which crashed, made a second attempt for landing after about 2 hours of holding the aircraft and burning the fuel as much as possible to avoid any big accident but couldn't succeed in safe landing, according to media reports.
The aircraft carried fuel for trip, contingency, alternate, final fuel reserve for 30 minutes and additional holding for about 2-1/2 hours; total fuel for an endurance of about 8-1/2 hours. The aircraft had been airborne until time of impact for 6:02 hours.
"The 737-800 has one of the best safety records of any modern day airplane, and flydubai is one of the world's youngest, astute and safest operators of the type and indeed is one of the safest airlines in the world. This would be their first major incident in nearly seven years of operation," Saj Ahmad, the chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research, told Khaleej Times.
Ahmad added: "The airplane in question is a 5-year-old Boeing 737-800, which has a fantastic safety record and is widely used by other big low-cost airlines like Southwest Airlines, Ryanair, SilkAir and a whole host of other international airlines."
The only saving grace here is that the flight was very lightly loaded with just 55 passengers, he said.
Earlier this month, the Dubai-based airline qualified for the International Air Transport Association membership after successfully completing the IOSA audit.
The year 2015 was pronounced one of the safest years for airlines globally by the IATA. The number of fatal accidents fell by two-thirds last year, excluding more than 300 deaths resulting from a pilot suicide and possible terror attack.
abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai