Dubai: One of the ill-fated UPS plane's black boxes has been found by the authorities, who also said on Saturday that the plane had left the UAE's airspace before entering it again and crashing.
The UPS Boeing 747-400 cargo aircraft that crashed in Dubai on Friday faced technical difficulties while in Bahrain's airspace before turning back towards Dubai and crashing at a sensitive military site in the Nad Al Sheba Military Camp.
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 UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority.
"We can't come to any conclusions now. All we know is that there was a fire on the plane," he told Gulf News.
Emergency declared
Both pilots died in the crash, and both bodies had been accounted for by yesterday, a police source who wished to remain anonymous told Gulf News.
Al Suwaidi said that the aircraft had already left the UAE's airspace and entered Bahrain's airspace before it 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 at 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.
Extent of damage
The plane crashed approximately 40 minutes after takeoff, he said.
The US National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team that includes representatives of Atlanta-based UPS and Boeing, expected to arrive today.
Dubai police refused to comment on record about the extent of damage that took place in the military camp, although several police sources confirmed that a military trucks garage, a flight hangar and a military restaurant might have been damaged in the plane crash.
Boeing 747-400: Standard workhorse
Boeing's four-engine 747-400 is a "workhorse" jet, which along with its predecessor models has been in service for about 40 years, said Bill Waldock, a crash investigation expert from Arizona.
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' airline and international operations, said in a statement.
— Bloomberg
