An Emirates Airlines aircraft flying from Dubai to Male, carrying 319 passengers and crew members, made an emergency landing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) here on Tuesday afternoon, following a “technical fault”.
Confirming the incident, the CSIA and Emirates airline officials said that all the passengers and crew members were safe. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300, landed with full emergency measures in place, amidst monitoring by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the airport.
“Full emergency was declared at 13:59 hrs for flight EK652 flying from Dubai to Male as smoke was observed on board. The flight landed at 14:58 hrs on runway no 9. There were 319 persons on board including the crew and all are safe,” a spokesperson of the Mumbai International Airport ltd (MIAl) said.
Apologising for the inconvenience caused to the passengers on board Male-bound flight, Emirates Airline said in a statement, “Emirates can confirm that on 26 July 2016, flight EK652 from Dubai to Male was diverted to Mumbai due to a technical fault”.
“The aircraft landed and passengers safely disembarked. Emirates apologises for the inconvenience. The health and safety of our crew and passengers is of paramount importance,” the Emirates statement added.