Emirates Airbus A380 makes emergency landing

An Emirates Airbus A380 was forced to make an emergency landing in Sri Lanka at Bandaranaike airport. Smoke had been detected in the cockpit

An Emirates A380 carrying more than 500 people was forced to make an emergency landing in Sri Lanka on Friday after pilots detected smoke in the cockpit, an official at Colombo airport said.

The plane, which landed in Colombo without damage on Friday morning, was 320 miles (600 km) east of the city when the pilots made a distress call.

“We mobilized our emergency services and organized the safe landing of the plane,” the head of the airport’s air navigation services, Crishanthi Tissera, told AFP.

Smoke in the cockpit

The pilots said they had noticed the appearance of smoke in the cockpit, which led the airport to alert teams of firefighters and doctors, she said.

The plane landed 39 minutes after the first distress call and all 471 passengers and 30 crew disembark unharmed.

The company said for its part that its flight from Sydney to Dubai had been diverted to Colombo “due to a technical problem” , in a statement, without mentioning the nature of the problem.

Emirates first landed with an A380 in 2012 in Colombo but the airport is not yet equipped to accommodate the world’s largest passenger plane.

Passengers on the plane were transferred to other Emirates flights.

Aishwarya Yogeshwar

Aishwarya Yogeshwar is the visionary founder of CGI Jaffna, a pioneering organization dedicated to fostering innovation and community growth in the Jaffna region. With a deep passion for news publishing, Aishwarya combines her entrepreneurial spirit with a keen interest in delivering impactful and engaging stories. Her commitment to creating a platform for reliable news and meaningful discourse reflects her dedication to empowering communities through knowledge and information. Aishwarya’s leadership and innovative approach make her a driving force in the world of media and communication.

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