The Latest: Passengers: Dubai pilot announced crash landing

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on the airport incident in Dubai (all times local):

3:20 p.m.

Passengers evacuated from an Emirates flight say that minutes before the flight crash-landed at Dubai airport, the pilot made an announcement that he needed to make an emergency landing.

Iype Vallikadan, a reporter from Indian newspaper “Mathrubhumi News,” says the passengers said the pilot spoke to them as the plane neared Dubai on Wednesday, saying there was a problem with the landing gear and that he would make an emergency landing.

Passengers said the cabin crew opened all the emergency exits of the plane and that all 300 passengers and crew on board the aircraft were evacuated within minutes of the landing.

The paper covers the southern Indian state of Kerala, of which Thiruvananthapuram is the capital. That’s the city the flight originated from.

Hundreds of thousands of Kerala residents work in the Gulf countries. The Emirates flight, flying directly from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai, was immensely popular with people from the state.

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2:50 p.m.

Dubai-based airline Emirates has confirmed that there were no fatalities on a flight from India that crash-landed at Dubai’s main airport Wednesday.

The carrier says “all passengers and crew are accounted for and safe.”

It raised the number of people onboard the flight to 300, saying there were 282 passengers and 18 crew.

The accident happened as Flight EK521 was arriving from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram.

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2:25 p.m.

Dubai’s media office has confirmed that emergency teams have been activated to respond to a crash landing at the main Dubai International Airport, and that all passengers and crew have been safely evacuated.

Dubai-based Emirates said the incident happened as Flight EK521 was arriving from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram.

It says the Boeing 777 plane had 275 passengers onboard.

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1:30 p.m.

The Mideast’s biggest airline, Emirates, is confirming that a flight from India with 275 passengers on board was involved in an accident at Dubai’s main airport.

It gave no details on the fate of those onboard Flight EK521 from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

Video posted online shows black smoke billowing from what looked like an Emirates jetliner lying on its belly on the runway.

Dubai-based Emirates says its “main priority now is the safety and well-being of all involved.”