TERRIFYING Close Call: Emirates 777 Nearly Crashes on Takeoff in Dubai

3rd March, 2022:

Update:

The preliminary report for this incident has now been released. Here are some excerpts:

The Commander stated that during cockpit preparation, she noticed that the altitude selector was set to 0000 feet and she selected it to 4,000 feet, which was also verified by the flight data recorder. The selection of 4,000 feet on the altitude selector was in accordance with the planned standard instrument departure (SID) of SENPA 2F1.

The Commander stated that after lift-off, and during climb, she followed the flight director command. However, the Aircraft rate of climb reached to a maximum of approximately 800 feet per minute. The flight crew were not able to adhere to published climb gradient of the SID due to the shallow climb.

In light of this, the following correction applies to the video:

- The crew did in fact notice that the ALT window was set at 0000, and they fixed this.

However, the hypothesis in the video that the pilot flying blindly followed the flight director was correct.

Hopefully the final report will examine the underlying causes for these errors.

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Update 1: A number of commenters on this video who are 777 pilots, or who know 777 pilots, have said that it is more likely that the correct altitude HAD been set on the autopilot before takeoff, but that the flight directors had been turned on before this altitude was set, meaning that the autopilot was still in ‘Altitude Hold’ mode, at airport elevation.

In other words, the Autopilot/Flight Directors thought that the pilots wanted it to fly at 0 feet, even though the pilots had set the correct altitude (4000 feet) on the autopilot panel. This is because the pilots had turned on the flight director BEFORE changing the altitude from 0ft to 4000ft, rather than after.

This is a known quirk of the 777 autopilot, and it is possible that for whatever reason, the pilots were not aware of this on that night.

If true, this still does not explain the behaviour of the aircraft on takeoff. Takeoffs are performed manually, and there is no known reason as of yet, that the pilots would lift off so late, or fly so low once they had lifted off.


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How did an Emirates Boeing 777 carrying up to 354 people nearly crash just after takeoff from Dubai International Airport just before Christmas in 2021?  

Full details of the incident have yet to emerge, but early reports, as well as a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) from Emirates, suggests that an over-dependence on automation by the pilots may be the culprit.

This video uses publicly available sources as of 30th December 2021 to recreate what may have taken place. Disclaimer: This video is not a definitive account of what happened. More details will emerge in the coming weeks, which may show that events transpired differently. If this is the case, the video will be updated to reflect this new understanding of events.

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All music licensed through Epidemic Sound

Pictures:

AF 447:
Hansueli Krapf  This file was uploaded  with Commonist., CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Asiana 214:
NTSB, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Emirates 521 Final Report:
https://www.gcaa.gov.ae/en/ePublicati...


Sources:
https://avherald.com/h?article=4f24b2d7

https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/6...

https://onemileatatime.com/news/emira...


00:00 Intro
01:28 Takeoff
02:31 Immediate Aftermath
02:48 NOTAM
05:40 Automation Dependency
09:08 Looking forward