DUBAI // A UAE Air Force jet came within seconds of colliding with an Emirates airline flight as it was taking off from Dubai international airport, a preliminary report has shown.
The BAE Hawk was forced to take evasive action to avoid a mid-air crash with the Boeing 777 flight bound for Istanbul.
The incident at 7.37am on February 12 was revealed in a preliminary incident report by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).
None of the 431 passengers on the Emirates flight were injured in the incident, but the GCAA launched an investigation.
The report comes as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned that more must to be done to alleviate Arabian Gulf nations' congested airspace.
A report by the authority's air accident investigation sector said the Hawk crew were transmitting on a different frequency to Dubai air-traffic controllers.
The reasons for this are under investigation. The UAE Air Force is also investigating.
The Emirates flight had been in the air for about a minute before air-traffic controllers told the crew a fast-moving aircraft was heading its way at an altitude of 150 metres, the report said.
But "at this stage of the B777's initial climb it was not possible to take any avoidance action".
The Hawk jet, which was travelling at a speed of more than 660kph then "performed a rapid avoiding manoeuvre/hard turn to the left".
The two planes missed each other by just 30 metres vertically and 555 metres horizontally, the report said.
"Based on the data, when the Hawk manoeuvres to the left of UAE123 (Emirates Airline jet), the Hawk was less that 3.5 seconds from intercepting the climb profile of UAE123," said the report.
The airliner continued on its scheduled flight and the military jet returned to Al Minhad airbase.
"Emirates can confirm that an incident involving flight EK123 took place on February 12 as mentioned in the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) preliminary report," said an Emirates airline spokesman.
"Emirates is co-operating fully with the GCAA and is awaiting the final report. Safety is of paramount importance to Emirates and this incident is being treated very seriously and with the highest priority."
The UAE Air Force two-seater jet had taken off from Al Minhad airbase at 7am and had been airborne for 37 minutes before the Emirates flight's take-off.
The jet had been seen on Dubai Air Traffic Control's radar on several occasions crossing into airspace in which it should not have been.
The report says there was confusion between the military jet's crew and ground controllers, with air-traffic control not being informed of the military jet's flight plan.
Investigators also found that the Hawk crew, who wanted permission to fly through the area, were initially given the wrong radio frequency to contact the airport's control tower.
"ATC had limited time to pass traffic information in a timely manner as required," said the report.
The IATA is working with governments, airlines and civil aviation bodies in the region to reach an agreement on how to reduce air-traffic congestion.
One of the key problems is that 55 per cent of the Gulf's airspace is reserved for military use, which results in less area available for commercial flights.
Michael Herrero, the head of IATA's Arabian Gulf operations, said there needed to be a concerted, region-wide effort to tackle the problem.
Experts are calling for a review of the layout of the existing airspace in the region as a way of solving the problem.
The GCAA will continue with its investigation into the incident and if no cause has been identified within 12 months, an interim report will be published.
Any safety issues identified during the course of the investigation will be made available to all the parties involved.
A final detailed report will be published once further data collection, analysis and findings have been completed.
nhanif@thenational.ae
The Bio
Ram Buxani earned a salary of 125 rupees per month in 1959
Indian currency was then legal tender in the Trucial States.
He received the wages plus food, accommodation, a haircut and cinema ticket twice a month and actuals for shaving and laundry expenses
Buxani followed in his father’s footsteps when he applied for a job overseas
His father Jivat Ram worked in general merchandize store in Gibraltar and the Canary Islands in the early 1930s
Buxani grew the UAE business over several sectors from retail to financial services but is attached to the original textile business
He talks in detail about natural fibres, the texture of cloth, mirrorwork and embroidery
Buxani lives by a simple philosophy – do good to all
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
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Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
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Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
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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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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
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The Written World: How Literature Shaped History
Martin Puchner
Granta
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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MATCH INFO
CAF Champions League semi-finals first-leg fixtures
Tuesday:
Primeiro Agosto (ANG) v Esperance (TUN) (8pm UAE)
Al Ahly (EGY) v Entente Setif (ALG) (11PM)
Second legs:
October 23
