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Because the crew did not notice that the autopilot was incorrectly set, an Emirates Boeing 777 took off from Dubai far too late. The serious incident is being investigated.
As a result, the machine flew over residential buildings at a height of only around 23 meters. (Symbol image)
imago images / Andreas Haas
It came to an almost disaster.
Flightradar24
Emirates flight EK231 almost ended in disaster on December 20th.
Because the autopilot was set incorrectly, the Boeing 777 took off too slowly and almost flew into apartment buildings.
Emirates has now opened an investigation into the serious incident.
The serious incident occurred on December 20th. An Emirates Boeing 777 with flight number EK231 took off from its home airport in Dubai. The destination of the flight was the US capital Washington. The plane landed safely there 14 hours later. But what happened shortly after take-off is what the flight investigation is concerned with. The large-capacity aircraft flew at a height of only around 23 meters over residential buildings that are around 1.6 kilometers behind the end of the runway, as reported by “Aerotelegraph”.
In a letter to pilots, Emirates announced that the crew had set the autopilot to 0000 feet instead of 4000 feet. As a result of this critical error, the so-called flight director system of the autopilot did not display any rotation, which normally causes the nose to be pulled up. As a result, the machine took off too slowly. It also says that the crew should actually have noticed the mistake. Finally, the crew goes through a checklist before take-off.
The state airline of the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates insistently points out in its letter that the so-called mode control panel, which is the interface between people and autopilot, must never be set to the height of the airport.
The machine stayed on the ground for four days
After returning from Washington, the affected Boeing 777 was no longer used for four days. The “Aviation Herald” portal, which specializes in incidents, reports that the reason for the temporary shutdown was damage that occurred when it took off in Dubai.
Emirates confirms that an incident has occurred. “The flight was safely continued to its destination, and after the technical clearance, the plane made the return flight to Dubai,” said a spokesman. The incident is currently being investigated.
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