The UPS cargo plane that crashed in Dubai on Friday had smoke in the cockpit and was unable to maintain altitude, a report said.

The Boeing 747-400 plane had departed from the Dubai International Airport at 6:53 pm local time headed to Koln-Bonn in Germany. At 7:15 pm local time information was received from Bahrain that the aircraft was returning to Dubai Airport with a smoke in the cockpit and requested the airport for landing permission, said the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

“The UAE ATC Centre issued a clearance when the aircraft was approximately 40 km from touchdown.  The aircraft was high on the approach and was at 8500 ft at 24 km from touchdown. It passed over the airfield very high and made a right turn. It was advised that all runways were available for the aircraft to land on. The aircraft tracked south west and rapidly lost altitude. At approximately 7:42 pm local time, radar contact was lost. The B744 crashed in an unpopulated area between the Emirates Road and Al Ain Highway after 50 minutes from departure and after returning from Bahrain FIR (Flight Information Region)," the report said.

The GCAA dispatched an investigation team immediately and the team is currently on site collecting evidence, analysing the initial onsite evidence, coordinating with all of the emergency services to secure the accident site.

The investigation team recovered the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) approximately 6 hours after the accident; the onsite GCAA investigation team is continuing the recovery effort to locate the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), while investigating the aircraft structure, systems, engines and flight controls as part of the forensic evidence collecting and data capturing activities associated with major air accident investigation, the GCAA statement said.
 
A team from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will arrive to UAE today to assist the GCAA team in the crash investigation, it said.  – TradeArabia News Service