All 307 passengers and 15 crew on board an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-86 escaped with only minor injuries following a fire that started when the aircraft's starboard engines "scraped the ground" in a gear-up landing at Dubai on 21 September.
Aeroflot claims that the undercarriage failed to lower for technical reasons. The resulting fire caused extensive damage, and it closed Dubai International Airport until just after 09:00 the following morning, with 44 aircraft diverting to other airports in the region. The other parallel runway was closed for repairs and could not be used.
An investigation into the cause of the incident is underway by the United Arab Emirates and Russian authorities. The aircraft was operating a scheduled Aeroflot flight from Moscow.
This is the first major incident to an Il-86 - Russia's first widebody airliner - which has been in service since 1980. A total of 106 aircraft were produced, and the only previous hull loss occurred in March 1994, when a Boeing 737 crashed during a training flight at Delhi and struck a parked Il-86.
Source: Flight International
