UAE | General
'We took off just before airspace was closed'
There was only one way to get a good vantage point of on Tuesday's collision off the coast of Dubai - by chartering a seaplane.
- By Kevin Scott, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:04 February 10, 2009
Dubai: There was only one way to get a good vantage point of on Tuesday's collision off the coast of Dubai - by chartering a seaplane.
When news of the accident broke shortly after midday, I left the general humdrum of the office and headed down Shaikh Zayed Road towards Jebel Ali Golf Resort and Spa where our Seawings plane was waiting.
A little smoke was visible across Dubai Marina en route and traffic snarled around the Jebel Ali Port area. Upon arriving at the resort, I met with Gulf News photographer Andrew Caballero-Reynolds and we sped off in a golf buggy to our take-off point.
Twenty minutes later, our pilot - an enthusiastic Canadian called Reggie Morisset, started up the Cessna Caravan 208 and we were skimming across the water before taking off and leaving Dubai behind.
We were only flying for around 10 minutes when the badly damaged oil tanker came into view. It had a gaping hole in the middle and a black oil-like substance was seeping into the sea, changing the entire texture and colour of the normally azure-blue waters of the Arabian Gulf.
A number of tugboats and other vessels surrounded the tanker, which appeared to be sinking around eight kilometres off the coast. After circling the scene several times and at numerous altitudes we headed back to shore.
Our pilot received a call just before landing informing him that all airspace in that area had just been closed and we were the last flight to leave before that order was given.
Certainly a novel way of reporting the news and just in the nick of time.
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