Crew last off burning Emirates plane

Emirates flight EK521 crash landed at Dubai Airport after a flight from India on August 3.

Emirates president Sir Tim Clark says the crew who successfully evacuated a burning Boeing 777 at Dubai Airport were the last to get off the plane.

The plane crashed as it tried to abort a landing in high winds at Dubai Airport in August.

While a firefighter died, all the 282 passengers got off the plane along with the 18 crew who were praised for their work.

"We try and simulate these situations in danger as best we can so that when it does happen as it did, their training just kicked in," said Clark.

"Emirates isn't any different from Lufthansa or BA (British Airways) or whoever. Would they have got their passengers out at the same speed? I don't know," he told the Herald

A wing had been ripped off and the plane was on fire as passengers scrambled from the plane.

Clark said the evacuation was more difficult because slides deployed on one side of the plane were blown vertical by strong winds.

"They had a compression of passengers trying to get out of one or two doors and that made life much more difficult. The panic that could have happened to a cabin crew who lost it and ran didn't happen - they were cool, calm and collected."

The captain and the purser were the last to get off the plane and jumped as it was engulfed in flames, he said.

Asked if the crew got a bonus he said: "It was a good story. I will say we looked after all of them."