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28 March 2024

‘Any closer and we would have died’

Motorists driving along Emirates Road could see the huge fireball after the plane crashed. (REUTERS)

Published
By Staff

The morning after the crash of a UPS cargo aircraft that left its two crew members dead, few details had emerged from the debris.

The two on board are reported to be American nationals, but have not yet been identified.

However, this much was clear: had the pilot lost control a little earlier, or even a few thousand metres off the area where he crashed, there would have been major civilian casualties.

Several eye-witness accounts were sent in to this website this morning, all reporting that the plane had flown perilously close to residential areas.

“I live in Dubai Silicon Oasis and heard a crash. I went to my balcony and saw the plane explode into a huge fire-ball, only seen in movies. It shook my building and rattled the windows. After 15 minutes I saw a helicopter scouting the area with spotlights,” Bjork B wrote in.

Koothoor Johny, who was driving back to Dubai said, “It was just like a scene in the movie. I was returning from Outlet Mall when I saw the huge ball of fire. It was so massive that I first thought the place has been bombed. Only later did I realise that a flight had crashed,” he said.

Sandeep Rajan, who was on the balcony of his apartment in Silicon Oasis in Dubai says, the pilot’s alertness probably saved many lives. “If the pilot had not deviated the flight towards the military base, he would have probably landed on the residential buildings here and the causalities would have been immense. Any closer and we would have all died,” said Rajan.

Motorists driving along Emirates Road could see the huge fireball after the plane crashed.

An eyewitness Omanakuttan told Emirates 24|7, “I could see a ball of fire and smoke in the desert area on the Al Ain Road. I was heading towards Dubai from the Global Village. It looked like the entire area was on fire.”

While social networking sites and twitterdom went into overdrive with conspiracy theories and possible causes of the crash, the Independent Pilots Association, a body representing 2800 pilots who work for UPS, and the two pilots who died, released a statement saying, “The IPA Executive Board and IPA Safety Director Paul Vislosky are working to verify information concerning the crash of a UPS jet in Dubai. The IPA is currently coordinating with UPS on the investigation. We will provide additional information as soon as possible.”

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is still probing what exactly took place after the Boeing 747-400 Jumbo cargo plane took off from Dubai International Airport on Friday, headed to Cologne, Germany.

The pilot is said to have reported a fire on board and was in the process of trying to return to the airport when it crashed in an uninhabited area between Emirates Road and Al Ain Road after 8pm.

The area is a military enclosure.