Dubai: One of the ill-fated UPS plane’s black boxes have been found, and an investigations team of US and Boeing officials is expected in the UAE on Sunday, said a General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) official.
A UPS Boeing 747 crashed at a military camp on the intersection of Al Ain Road and Emirates Road on Friday killing the two crew members on board.
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was found on Saturday morning and is expected to be sent abroad, “most probably to the UK” by Sunday, said Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of the GCAA.
“We can’t come to any conclusions now. All we know is that there was a fire on the plane,” he told Gulf News.
Al Suwaidi said the pilot had already left the UAE’s airspace and entered Bahrain’s before the aircraft started facing problems.
“He was reporting to Bahrain’s air traffic control (ATC) when he declared an emergency and decided to head back towards Dubai because that was a closer airport,” he said. “However he had problems switching back to the Dubai ATC frequency so he remained on the Bahraini frequency as he returned to Dubai,” he said, adding that it was so far unclear why the pilot was unable to change the frequency.
Upon entering Dubai the pilot was given the option of landing in Dubai International Airport or Sharjah International Airport, where air traffic had been completely cleared, said Al Suwaidi.
“He attempted to land in Dubai but he was too fast and too high, so he climbed again, turned left and then disappeared,” he said.
The plane crashed approximately forty minutes after takeoff, he said.
There was a possibility of a fire in the cockpit, he speculated, but insisted that no conclusions could be reached before the investigation is complete.
“If the reason is clear, an investigation can be completed in two or three months, but if the situation remains as unclear as it is, it could take more than a year,” he said.
Both of the pilots were American citizens, according to the airplane manifesto. The American embassy has been notified about the death of its country’s citizens, said Al Suwaidi.
Al Suwaidi said a joint investigation team from Boeing and the air crash investigations centre in the US are expected to arrive in the UAE on Sunday.
Investigation continues
UAE officials are trying to determine why a United Parcel Service Inc. freighter crashed after takeoff from Dubai, killing both pilots, following the crew's report of fire in the cockpit.
The Boeing Co. 747-400 was en route to Cologne, Germany, when it went down on Friday carrying two crew members, UPS said. Rescue workers recovered the bodies, the General Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement on WAM, the official UAE newswire.
The jet couldn't return to Dubai International Airport when controllers ordered a landing after being told of the fire, Saif Al Suwaidi, general manager of civil aviation, told state-run Dubai TV. The sky was clear and winds were about 5 miles per hour, according to aviation weather website CheckWX.com.
"Whatever happened, it must have been pretty catastrophic," said Bill Waldock, a crash investigation professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.
The US National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team that included representatives of Atlanta-based UPS and Boeing. The crash site is in an unpopulated area near a UAE military compound, according to Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, which said late on Friday that authorities were starting an investigation.
The accident occurred around 8pm UAE time. "The pilot reported fire and smoke in the cockpit and was instructed to return to Dubai," Al Suwaidi told Dubai TV. "After failing to land at the airport, the plane disappeared from radar screens."
'Workhorse' jet
Boeing's four-engine 747-400 is a "workhorse" jet, which along with its predecessor models has been in service for about 40 years, Waldock said. UPS owns 12 of the 747-400 freighters, according to the company's website. General Electric Co. made the engines on the UPS plane.
"This incident is very unfortunate and we will do everything we can to find the cause," Bob Lekites, manager of UPS's airline and international operations, said in a statement. UPS didn't immediately confirm any casualties.
The company and its pilots union were included in the team sent by the NTSB, along with representatives from GE, the world's biggest maker of jet engines, and the Federal Aviation Administration. UPS, the world's biggest package-delivery company, makes 936 domestic flights daily and 755 outside the US, according to its website.
Freighter deliveries
Boeing has delivered more than 100 747-400 freighters since the first plane entered service in November 1993 with Cargolux Airlines, according to the planemaker's website.
The 747-400 has a maximum payload of 112,630 kilograms and a maximum range of 8,230 kilometers. The extended-range version of the plane can fly more than 5,700 miles.
The CF6-80C2 engines on the 747-400 freighter are used on more than 1,100 aircraft worldwide, accumulating more than 160 million flight hours, GE said.
"Based on the engine fleet's service history, we are not aware of operational issues that would hazard the continued safe flight of aircraft powered by these engines," the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company said in a statement.
