Emirates B773 at Male on Dec 2nd 2011, burst tyres on landing

The United Arab Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) have released their final report concluding the probable causes of the incident were:

- Male Airport Runway Condition leading to areas of standing water.

- Information provided by ATC to the Crew concerning the status of the runway.

- Lack of reduction of the areas of standing water on the runway to below a depth that posed a hazard to the aircraft.

- The ability of the junction box securing straps to withstand the loads from the water encountered during the landing sequence.

The GCAA analysed: "The crew members were informed of the weather when approaching the destination airport, however they had no way of knowing the exact amount or location of standing water on the runway, as they assumed as per their training, that the runway was evenly wet. However the amount of water present on the runway during their landing was different to what they were expecting and it wasn’t evenly distributed, as large amounts of water created different surface conditions ranging from wet to contaminated in different areas."

With respect to Male's runway conditions the GCAA analysed: "The MLE airport runway surface has deteriorated over time leading to areas that allow water to pool. The general meteorological conditions to which MLE is subjected can lead to bursts of rainfall in certain months which raise the risks of water pooling occurring in a relatively short period of time. The monitoring of the runway conditions, remedial action to reduce the standing water hazard to an acceptable level and the communication of accurate runway condition reports to flight crew will reduce the risk of a similar event occurring in the future."

With respect to the landing gear the GCAA analysed: "The metal straps which secure the junction boxes to the aircraft landing gear can be damaged by water impact. In some instances such as this event, detachment of junction boxes could occur. Since the incident event, the manufacturer has undertaken a review of the junction box attachment design and changes have been made to strengthen the securing straps. Junction boxes on B777 aircraft have previously suffered instances of damage."