Safe evacuation: Smoke in cockpit forces plane off runway
A Dubai-bound plane carrying 82 people on board was pulled off the runway minutes before takeoff after pilot detected smoke in the cockpit, Karachi airport officials said.
At around 7:45 pm, just as Emirates airlines flight EK-609 was due to depart, the pilot called for emergency assistance soon after he had started backing off the Airbus 320, they said.
“We are not sure about the nature of this emergency. Right now I can tell you that fire tenders are being dispatched on the distress call,” said Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman Pervez George.
“All the passengers and crew members were evacuated and the plane has been parked on one side. No one was hurt.” The plane deployed chutes to evacuate passengers.
The flights coming in and out of Jinnah International Airport Karachi have not been affected, he concluded.
In its statement, Emirates said that the flight was cancelled due to technical reasons after crew detected smoke in the cabin. It said that the passengers were booked on another flight. “The cause of the smoke is under investigation.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2014.