Emirates training aircraft involved in 'incident' at airline's Dubai academy

An Emirates training aircraft was involved in an “incident” on Thursday at the airline's academy in Dubai.

No one was injured, a representative of the Dubai airline told The National.

“The Emirates Flight Training Academy can confirm that today a Cirrus SR22 G6 training aircraft was involved in an incident at the academy,” the representative said.

"The incident will be investigated and we are fully co-operating with the authorities.”

No further details were disclosed.

Launched in 2017, the academy in Dubai South offers pilot training and has a fleet of 30 aircraft, including 22 Cirrus SR22 G6 planes, five Embraer Phenom 100EV aircraft and three Diamond DA 42 jets, according to its website.

The airline had ordered the three DA 42 aircraft from Austria's Diamond Aircraft in a deal worth €4 million at list prices in March.

The facility, which is equal in size to 200 football fields, has 36 classrooms, six full-motion flight simulators, an independent Air Traffic Control Tower, and a dedicated 1,800-metre long runway.

In February, Emirates announced plans to build a $135 million advanced training centre for pilots as it ramped up operations to meet strong air travel demand.

The centre will accommodate six full-flight simulator bays for its future Airbus A350 and Boeing 777X aircraft, the airline said.

The 5,882-square metre training unit is expected to open in March 2024, next to the existing Emirates training complex in Dubai.

The new building will give Emirates the potential to expand its pilot-training capacity by 54 per cent a year.

Across the airline’s training buildings, pilots can use 17 full-flight simulator bays offering a capacity of more than 130,000 training hours a year.

In line with the scheduled delivery of Emirates’ first Airbus A350 aircraft, the airline’s newest training college will start training its first pilots for the aircraft by June 2024, the airline said.