Authorities are still investigating the cause of an aircraft fire that forced an Air Berlin flight from Thailand to Abu Dhabi to be aborted shortly after take-off on Thursday night.
Flames were reported in one of the wings of the Airbus A330 after it took off for the UAE capital from the island of Phuket. The plane made an emergency landing at Phuket International Airport, bursting a wheel in the process.
A spokesman from Air Berlin confirmed the incident and said all 249 passengers on board are in good health. No details have yet been released regarding the origin of the fire.
"Air Berlin is in dialogue with the local authorities and is assisting them in their investigation of the incident," the airline said in a statement. "A team of technicians from Air Berlin is already on the way to Phuket."
The affected passengers have been offered accommodation in the resort town and rebooked onto substitute flights today and tomorrow. The airport closed for several hours, but reopened at 3:45am local time.
Etihad Airways is the largest shareholder in Air Berlin. Earlier this week, Etihad signed a deal to buy a 70 per cent stake in Air Berlin's frequent flyer programme as part of a plan to set up the biggest air-miles scheme in the world.
vtodorova@thenational.ae
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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