Emirates crash investigation to take up to three years: regulator

The investigation into the Emirates jet crash landing at Dubai International Airport on Aug. 3 will take two to three years to complete, the director general of the United Arab Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said on Sunday.

The crash was the first major accident in Emirates' more-than-30-year history. All 300 passengers and crew safely evacuated the jet but a firefighter died tackling flames after the Boeing 777-300, arriving from India, caught fire after skidding along the Dubai airport runway on its fuselage.

In a preliminary report released on Sept. 6, the federal aviation authority said the pilot of flight EK521 tried to abort the landing after the plane's main wheels had already touched down.

Director General Saif Mohammed al-Suwaidi told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai that the investigation would be completed by 2019 and the GCAA was likely to introduce "some precaution measures" before then. He did not say what those measures would be.

A two- to three-year timeframe "to complete an investigation report of this nature is not unusual", an Emirates spokeswoman told Reuters.

Al-Suwaidi also said he expected the Russian-led investigation into the March 19 flydubai crash in southern Russia to take "another two years."

All 62 passengers and crew on board were killed in the crash.

A statement released by the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) on April 8 suggested pilot error was to blame for the accident.