Emirates 777 may have attempted go-around before Dubai crash

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Diya TV) — The Emirates airliner that crash landed in Dubai Wednesday attempted to regain altitude in the final moments before it hit the ground, transponder data and air traffic control communications suggest.

Neither the airline or investigators have confirmed the findings, aviation experts have cautioned many that much remains unknown about the cause of the crash of the Boeing 777, widely regarded as one of the world’s safest aircrafts.

However, the data, which was confirmed by the plane’s black boxes, revealed the crew of Flight No. EK521 was starting to go around for a second landing attempt when something went horribly wrong. Obtained by the aviation website FlightRadar24.com, the obtained transponder data shows the plane came close to the ground during its descent around 12:37 p.m. local time. That was just before altitude readings and the vertical speed suddenly, indicating the start of a go-around.

This all occurred during the same time an air traffic control radio recording has someone calling out the flight’s number and saying “returning to 4,000.”

“I think it indicates that there was some kind of effort to try to gain altitude,” Mikael Robertsson, a co-founder of FlightRadar24, told The Associated Press.

However, within a dozen seconds, the aircraft descended, striking the ground and apparently bouncing back up briefly before coming down again and stopping, according to the data.

At the time of the crash landing, the mid-day summer sun had raised temperatures at the airport to about 120 degrees. Not an unusual temperature for the region during this time of the year, however, it can represent a more hostile environment for airplanes — the hot air requires jet engines to work harder to get off the ground.

Additionally, wind speeds of 24 mph blew toward the northwest at the airfield at the time of the crash-landing, according to the United Arab Emirates’ National Center for Meteorology and Seismology. This leaves the possibility of wind shears — a sudden change in wind speed or direction — which investigators are currently taking into consideration, Emirates CEO and chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum has said.

The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority, which is leading the investigation, said Thursday it was still working to recover the flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

American and British investigators will participate in the probe because the Boeing plane was built in the U.S. and was powered by British-made Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines.

An attempted go-around could explain why the grounded plane’s landing gear did not appear to be extended.

“If the airplane had gone around, part of the maneuver is retracting the landing gear,” said commercial airline pilot and author Patrick Smith. “It’s conceivable that during the go-around that they experienced a dangerous wind shear,” he said.

Chicago-based Boeing said it is prepared to deploy a technical team to assist with the investigation.

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest hub in terms of international traffic, said it was running “under restricted capacity and has since continued to operate with one runway.” Some flights were being redirected to the city-state’s second airport, Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central.

Flight EK521 was carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew members on its return from Thiruvananthapuram, India.