An Emirates A380 Superjumbo landed at Australia’s Brisbane International Airport on Friday night with a large hole in the side of its fuselage in an area close to the left wing known as the root fairing.
Sources claim that the damage may have happened during takeoff from Dubai, about 13 and a half hours before the plane landed in Australia.
The three-year-old A380 took off from Dubai International Airport at 2:30 on Friday but continued its journey. The pilots may not have reported a possible tire burst on takeoff to air traffic control in Brisbane.
The double-decker plane landed safely in Brisbane but stalled on the runway. Emergency services initially discovered a large hole in the fairing as well as an “entrance” under the fuselage.
In December 2021, an Emirates Boeing 777 with 374 passengers and crew flew low and fast over the densely populated and high-altitude area of Dubai, only to gain altitude after flying over the Persian Gulf.
Initial reports suggested that the pilots tried with the altitude selector set to zero feet, but the captain claims he noticed this error prior to departure.
However, analysts questioned why the plane was allowed to continue its flight to Washington DC instead of returning to Dubai, where damage could be confirmed.
A month later, a second Boeing 777-300 operated by Emirates began to take off from the runway for takeoff without obtaining clearance from air traffic control as another aircraft crossed the runway.
The aircraft reached 130 “indicated speed knots” before the pilots eventually rejected takeoff. Surprisingly, after taxiing back to a holding point in the airspace, the flight was cleared to depart 30 minutes later without any further incident.
The A380 involved in the latest crash remains on the ground in Brisbane and the flight back to Dubai has been suspended. The nearly three-year-old aircraft (A6-EVK) houses a special Museum of the Future livery that celebrates a new ring-shaped building on Dubai’s famous Sheikh Zayed Road.
Watch the video of the damaged Emirates plane released by the Pacific AviationTrip YouTube channel:
