Emirates EK521 crash landing in Dubai: Incident may change emergency evacuations

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This was published 7 years ago

Emirates EK521 crash landing in Dubai: Incident may change emergency evacuations

By Anthony Dennis
Updated
Crews work to extinguish a fire on Emirates flight EK521 after it was involved in an accident.

Crews work to extinguish a fire on Emirates flight EK521 after it was involved in an accident.Credit: Twitter/@apaspo1957

The scenes of the fiery hulk of Emirates Flight 521 on the runway in Dubai were spectacular, alarming and compelling – all the more so since the airline rates among the world's top 20 safest airlines, or it did.

But attention has also now turned to what may prove to be the invaluable footage shot by a passenger of the miraculous but chaotic, and hardly seamless, evacuation of the aircraft.

It proves just how essential airlines safety videos can be – and also how utterly ineffectual. As ludicrous as they've tended to become, Air New Zealand's innovative and lively in-flight safety videos at least have the potential to attract the attention of passengers, particularly inexperienced ones. The evacuation footage shows numerous passengers removing hand luggage from overhead lockers, potentially, if not actually, delaying the evacuation of the aircraft.

Passengers on board the Emirates flight during the evacuation.

Passengers on board the Emirates flight during the evacuation.Credit: Twitter/@rehanquereshi

Would you care to queue for backpack and handbag retrieval as you waited for a plane to explode, as it did soon after the escape?

It's an accepted fact that during an emergency landing of the nature of EK521 that passengers and crew have 90 seconds to leave the aircraft. But when there is smoke in the cabin and the plane's fuselage on fire, who would want to use that full 90 seconds?

All of this is not to criticise the magnificent Emirates crew – who can be heard shouting in the video for passengers to leave their belongings behind – or the passengers themselves who ignored those entreaties. It is, after all, human nature, to want to reach for your valuables in such a situation. And can you be sure you wouldn't do the same?

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In 2013, photos showed many passengers involved in the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash exiting the plane with their hand luggage. The same thing occurred last year when British Airways passengers evacuated after a fire on board a plane at Las Vegas.

It may be that the retrieving hand luggage during an emergency will need to become - draconian as it may sound - an offence, with warnings included in safety videos (it's a crime to smoke on a plane but you can risk lives during an evacuation). Or perhaps overhead lockers will need to be automatically locked on landings and in emergencies.

Then again, while investigators will work hard to determine the cause of the crash of EK521 it's likely nothing happen at all regarding emergency evacuations, due to cost and other factors. Just as nothing much seems to have changed at airports around the world, including those in Australia, following the ghastly terrorist attacks on Brussels and Istanbul airports.

See also: Phone off, tray table up: the reasons behind the rules of air travel

See also: How airlines are making safety videos impossible to ignore

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