An Emirates flight made an emergency landing at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) on Friday, December 2 and sustained damages to two tyres. No passengers and crew were injured.
The Emirates flight EK635 was en route from Colombo to Dubai when it landed in Male’ at 10:35 pm on Friday. It had suffered the deflation of two tyres in its left main landing apparatus.
A spokesperson for INIA said pilots are trained for such situations, and the plane was brought to a safe stop on the INIA runway.
An Emirates spokesperson stated that, “All passengers disembarked safely from the Boeing 777-300 aircraft and are currently being looked after by ground staff. Transit and onward passengers will be accommodated in hotels if necessary.”
The airport was closed until 4:20am on Saturday, December 3 while the issue resolved. Only small aircraft with prior approval were allowed to depart during that time.
“The aircraft is currently being assessed by engineers and will be towed from the runway as soon as possible. Emirates apologise for any inconvenience caused. The safety of our passengers and crew is always of paramount importance,” read the statement from Emirates.
The Dubai-based airline launched daily flights between Colombo and Male’ in August this year, raising service to 19 flights per week. It has been flying to the Maldives since 1987.
Along with Sri Lankan airlines, it is one of the most active international carriers in the country.
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lets Demonstrate.
The tires burst while taxiing on the runway, after landing and on a scheduled flight.
It was not an emergency landing. The emergency situation came up when the tires burst (due to uneven runway surface), and the runway had to closed due to the stranded aircraft on the middle of the runway.
Dont try to confuse the public.
this eleanor johnstone person doesnt know what she is talking about. all her reports are very poor and are written in poor english. i wonder whether she has any education in journalism whatso ever.
As Ashraf has pointed out, the reporting here is totally incorrect. It was not an emergency landing, but became an emergency event after the landing.
The most peculiar thing about this incident is that the airport did not have the equipment to tow the stricken aircraft off the runway. The airport operator has to be asked some serious questions about that when the only runway available is blocked due to lack of equipment in a country that totally depends on the proper operation of this runway!
This is totally unacceptable. GMR has a lot to answer for.
The is is the best airline in the world. They too can have accidents. This is has nothing to do with who is managing our airport. GMR is doing a heck of a job
Hey this is the intolerant 100% muslim republic of Maldives. Did they frisk the non muslim passengers and confiscate bibles, ramayans, icons, idols, etc before allowing them into the terminal building? Did they check the passengers did not have christian hymns on their laptops, pen drives and MP3 players? Did they check the passengers were not wearing crosses and oms around their necks? Did they check the passengers were not carrying bottles of holy water and ganga jal?
What nonsense bin Addu and Ashraf. Aircraft tires do not burst while taxing due to uneven runway surface. Furthermore, there are aircraft tow tugs at Male Airport to tow aircraft otherwise they would not have a license to operate public air transport with that type of aircraft that operates to Male since it is a single runway.
The main reason why the runway was probably closed for such a long time that is there is no aircraft engineering available in Maldives for such big aircraft as the local carrier does not operate such aircraft.
This is not the first time the airport has closed the runway due to a tire burst. Sometime back Indian Airlines also had a tire burst and had to close the runway for a few hours.
people should understand that GMR has committed to build a new airport including the runways. So it is a waste of money to invest repairing the old runways. these unfortunate accidents due to damaged runways are unavoidable.
Maybe GMR will charge an extra USD 300 per passenger for runway development?
@ Ahmed. And GMR will charge that also for 35 years.
Flight number was EK653 not 635, and the flight was en-route to Male not Dubai. It was the Colombo - Male leg.
ALSO, this wasn't an emergency landing, the tyers burst on a routine landing. What a terrible and misleading article, check before you report!
Ahmed please excuse Minivan. It is owned by MDP businesses, housed in the Presidents family home and formerly boasted the Presidents younger brother as its editor.
I think the purpose of Minivan and the reason for their pro-government white-washing is more than obvious.
The title conveys the 'burst tire forces emergency landing' - indicating the cause of the emergency landing was the burst tire. Did water on the runway as previous Minivan reports have intimated, cause damage to the tires? In which case the article is not factual. As other readers have observed, Eleanor Johnstone's reporting is very poor and does nothing to convey the facts of the situation - which may well be her purpose, in which case the poor reporting is intentional.
Further, EK 635 flies from Colombo to Male and onto Dubai. The statement EK 635 was enroute to Dubai from Colombo when it landed in Male with two delfated tires - again conveys that landing in Male was due to the deflated tires. Lets hope for her sake that reporting is not Eleanor's day job! Do editors at Minivan not mind that the content integrity is compromised with poor quality reporting and editing?
Down with Minivan AND down with cigarette prices!!!!!!!!!