On January 20, 2021, Emirates 231 flight from Dubai (DXB) flew pretty damn low. It must have been quite a scary experience for the people of Deira (the altitude over Deira based on FR24 data, was 175 ft and the speed 262kt), and one that hopefully will not be repeated. Although the whole case is still under investigation by Emirates and as the plane was heading for Washington, USA, we will have the FAA’s conclusion, it is already clear that the situation that night/early morning over Dubai was critical and a fatal crash was not far away…
According to unconfirmed reports and data from FlightRadar24, the plane nearly impacted the ground after takeoff after the flight crew failed to properly set a climb (for whatever reason the altitude was set to 000000), which resulted in the flight director nearly crashing the aircraft into the ground.
In addition, the crew ignored the overspeed that could have led to serious damage to the fuselage/structure and instead of returning to Dubai, continued the 14-hour flight to Washington DC.
The fact is that air travel is the safest form of transport and this incident does not change that fact. However, it is necessary to examine whether over-reliance on automated systems without the application of logic, common sense, combined with a lax approach to setting default data, is becoming an increasing threat in today’s automated world.
Author: Katerina Urbanova
Photo credit: Emirates
