Dubai airport fire: Firefighter dies tackling Emirates plane runway blaze

All 300 people on board the plane have been rescued after it crashed

Footage showed a fireball bursting from the plane after it crash landed at Dubai International Airport

A firefighter has died while battling a blaze that broke out after an Emirates passenger plane crash landed at Dubai International Airport.

Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum announced the death of the unnamed firefighter at a press conference in the city.

All 300 people on board the flight from the Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram were rescued after plane crashed landed on the runway and burst into flames at 12:45pm (8:45am UK time) on Wednesday.

Around 10 passengers required hospital treatment. The cause of the crash has not yet been confirmed.

Mr al Maktoum said: "We pay tribute to the firefighter who lost his life fighting the blaze.

"We thank all teams that dealt with the incident".

The director of the United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority, Said Al Suwaidi, said: "I salute his ultimate sacrifice that kept many from harm’s way. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family".

During the press conference Mr al Maktoum refused to say what the cause of the crash was but said the airport opened again by 6:30pm local time (3:30pm UK time).

He added that the pilot was a "well experienced" Emirati national with more than 7,000 flight hours.

The incident had forced thousands of planes to be delayed, canceled or diverted - wreaking havoc on thousands of people's holiday plans.

Those on board included 226 Indians, 24 Britons and 11 Emiratis. Other nationalities on board included people from the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, Croatia, Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, The Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland and Tunisia.


 By the time firefighters reached the blaze the roof of the plane had collapsed 
 (Reuters)

Passengers escaped the burning plane using inflatable slides. At one point after coming to a stop, part of the plane exploded into a bright orange fireball.

Iype Vallikadan, a reporter from Indian newspaper Mathrubhumi News, said passengers reported that the pilot spoke to them as the plane neared Dubai on Wednesday, saying there was a problem with the landing gear and that he would make an emergency landing.

Video shot by a passenger on another flight showed the plane tilted to its right side and careening on its belly as thick smoke poured out. The right wing appeared to have been torn off the fuselage during the crash.

By the time firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze on the ground, the fire had consumed the roof of the plane and it was scorched from the cockpit all the way to the tail.

The airport is the biggest air hub in the world in terms of passenger traffic. It handled some 78 million passengers last year.

The state-owned Emirates Airlines is the airport's flagship carrier. It has a good safety record with no other major incidents recorded since its founding in 1985.

Additional reporting by agencies