Smoke started billowing out of the tail of a Dubai-bound Emirates flight at Chennai airport last night. A plume of white smoke was coming out from the engine compartment of a Boeing 777 aircraft while it was stationed on the tarmac. No passengers were aboard the plane when the incident took place.
A video shot on the tarmac shows smoke coming out of the tail due to overfilling before take-off. The area was cleared by the ground staff, but the smoke was blowing toward a plane parked behind the Dubai-bound flight.
"Ground staff alerted pilots, who shut down engines to prevent escalation. And fire engines rushed to the site to prevent any untoward situation. The situation was brought under control. In between, all passengers were deplaned for a safety inspection," A Chennai airport official.
Around 300 passengers were expected to travel in the aircraft but the incident happened before boarding took place. Fire engines were present at the spot to control the fire. The flight was scheduled to take off at 10 pm but the incident delayed it by over two hours and the aircraft took off at 12:30 am.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India's aviation watchdog, has ordered an enquiry. Meanwhile, Emirates apologized for the inconvenience caused to passengers and said, "Following an engineering inspection, the aircraft was cleared to proceed to Dubai. Emirates apologizes for the inconvenience caused. The safety of our passengers and crew is of the utmost importance."