3PL/Logistics

The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has issued a preliminary report on the UPS 747-400 that crashed near Dubai International Airport shortly after take-off on Friday

UPS has confirmed that the two pilots died in the crash

Both Captain Lampe, who had been with UPS since 1995, and First Officer Bell, who had been with UPS since 2006, flew out of UPS's Anchorage, Alaska pilot base

The three-year-old aircraft entered UPS service off the Boeing production line in September 2007 The airframe had flown 9,977 hours, completing 1,764 takeoffs and landings It was up to date on all maintenance, having just completed a major inspection in June 2010

UPS owns twelve 747-400s, eight of which are new and four having been purchased from other carriers and adapted for UPS use The aircraft is used on long-range international routes, such as the regular Dubai-Cologne route

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is dispatching an aviation investigation team to assist the General Civil Aviation Authority (GACC) of the UAE in the crash investigation The GCAA will take the lead on the investigation and release all information on the progress of the investigation

Boeing is sending a team to provide technical support to the investigation, and a A UPS team has already arrived in Dubai and will cooperate with the authorities in the investigation

Meanwhile, the GCAA has released its preliminary report on the incident:

The UPS6 B744 had departed from Dubai International Airport at 14h53 UTC (18h53 local time) headed to Koln-Bonn, Germany At 15h15 UTC (19h15 local time), information was received from Bahrain that the aircraft was returning to Dubai Airport with a smoke in the cockpit, unable to maintain altitude and requested the airport for landing

The UAE ATC Centre issued a clearance when the aircraft was approximately 40 km from touchdown The aircraft was high on the approach and was at 8,500ft at 24 km from touchdown It passed the overhead the airfield very high and made a right turn

All runways were available for the aircraft to land on The aircraft tracked south-west and rapidly lost altitude At approximately 15h42 UTC (19h42pm local time), radar contact was lost

The aircraft crashed in an unpopulated area between the Emirates Road and Al Ain Highway, fifty minutes after departure

A GCAA investigation team is currently on site collecting evidence, analysing the initial onsite evidence, coordinating with all of the emergency services to secure the accident site, liaising with the aircraft manufacturer technical specialists and international accident investigation bodies who have been invited to assist the GCAA

The investigation team recovered the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) approximately six hours after the accident; the onsite GCAA investigation team is continuing the recovery effort to locate the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), while investigating the aircraft structure, systems, engines and flight controls as part of the forensic evidence collecting and data capturing activities associated with major air accident investigation