These past two days, to say the least, have been trying for anyone who has had to deal with the fallout from the hard landing and fire on an Emirates Boeing 777 aircraft at Dubai International Airport, and the standard disruption and cancellations that naturally follow such an incident.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, relatives and friends of a brave firefighter, Jasem Al Beloushi, who died fighting the fire that swept through the stricken aircraft. He died a true hero and those who mourn his memory should take solace and comfort from the fact that his ultimate sacrifice helped save the lives of all 300 on the plane that travelled from Thivurananthapuram in India.
Al Beloushi and his fellow firefighters are trained for such an event, and their professionalism meant that the fire was quickly brought under control, preventing any further loss of life. Airport officials also brought all of their training and professionalism to bear in dealing with evacuation from the plane and the extent of emergency preparedness and well-choreographed and rehearsed plans showed that being prepared and alert pay off.
Dubai is the busiest airport for international flights in the world. That Emirates responded so swiftly and professionally shows that their planning and preparation also worked. So too with Dubai Airports staff, faced with an unprecedented backlog.
It needs to be noted that now, in an age where information is readily available through social media, officials from Emirates and Dubai airport acted quickly and in a fully transparent manner, offering information and updates when they needed to be released. For this openness, they deserve credit. Naturally, the loss of one of two operational runways at the world’s busiest airport presented a set of sudden challenges that appeared to have knock-on effects globally. It takes airlines weeks to plan flights, schedule planes and make sure that they are in the air for as long as possible, spending as little time on the ground as is necessary. Take out 50 per cent of runway capacity and it’s a body blow. The authorities have to factor-in that planes have to land as well as take-off from that runway and the situation is exacerbated even more. With code-share flights and tight schedules, any disruption in operations is magnified greatly.
Patience, above all else, is needed now as operations return to normal as quickly as possible and a quiet prayer goes out for all those 300 who walked away from what had the potential to be a very tragic incident.
