This incident occurred on Friday, July 1, 2022, on Emirates flight EK430 from Dubai (DXB) to Brisbane (BNE). The 7,442-mile flight was operated by an around three-year-old Airbus A380 with the registration code A6-EVK.
The plane departed from runway 30L at Dubai Airport, and the 13hr34min flight was mainly uneventful, at least as far as we know. The plane initially climbed to 31,000 feet, and as it turned off more fuel, it eventually climbed to 39,000 feet. On system to Brisbane, the crew advised air traffic controllers that they thought a tire had been blown on takeoff, so they asked for an emergency landing to be on standby.
The plane landed on runway 19R at Brisbane Airport
The plane landed on runway 19R at Brisbane Airport and was pulled to the apron. It was then decided that there was a huge hole in the left side of the fuselage, just underneath the passenger windows and after the wing. Seriously, that’s a massive hole — just compare it to the size of the passenger windows for scale.
- There was also a lost bolt and cap on the nose gear, though an investigation requires to be performed before we understand to what extent these two things are linked.
As you’d expect, the return flight to Dubai was revoked, and the plane is still on the ground in Brisbane (and likely will be for quite some time). Fortunately, no one was injured, and passengers (and probably even the crew) had no clue what the plane looked like from the outside until they were safely on the ground.
What occurred to this Emirates airbus a380?
It seems fairly certain that something that happened either during takeoff or just after takeoff, may have ultimately led to this. As mentioned above, even the pilots allegedly suspected that a tire had been blown on takeoff. That’s not to tell the hole was in the fuselage for the total flight, though it might have been.
One commenter at The Aviation Herald writes the following (I haven’t been able to verify if this is true, but I think it’s still worth passing on, as it sounds believable):
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I was on this flight sitting approx 10 rows in front of the hole on the left side window. Almost 30-45 mins after takeoff we heard a loud bang, I turned to my wife and stated that whatever it was it would be stressing the pilots. Didn’t sound like normal turbulence. The rest of the flight was fine, with no funny noises that I could hear. Before we landed they said us we had to land on a different runway and get an engineer to inspect the aircraft for a suspected landing gear issue. Landing felt smooth. Then with the engine powered down, we had to be towed. So surprised to see a hole in the side now!! Thankful it wasn’t any worse.
On the surface, the thought of flying 13+ hours with a huge hole in the fuselage sounds terrifying. For that matter, you’d think it would have caused a huge amount of noise if it were there for most of the flight, but there are no reports of that.
We’ll have to wait for a complete investigation before we can determine who was at fault, if the pilots followed procedures correctly, etc.
I’d have to imagine that if the pilots thought there was a huge hole in the fuselage they would have diverted directly. Meanwhile, if they just thought that a tire had blown on takeoff, then there’s not much benefit to returning to Dubai, since a ton of fuel would have had to be dumped, and a blown tire doesn’t pose any risk during the flight.
Emirates Airbus A380 landed in Brisbane
At the end of the day, this is just a testament to how well planes are made— the fact that the world’s largest jet can land with a huge hole in the fuselage without anything serious happening is pretty amazing.
An Emirates Airbus A380 landed in Brisbane with a huge hole in the fuselage. As of now details of how this happened are quite limited, but I’m sure an investigation will reveal more details into what the root cause was if pilots followed procedures, etc. Thank goodness this didn’t have a different ending or worse.
Thank you
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