Qantas emergency

About three hours ago a Qantas A380 had to turn back and make an emergency landing at Singapore's Changi Airport after what they said was "an issue with an engine"

Some issue:




Thankfully all 459 people on board are safe and uninjured.

I've just heard a telephone interview with a passenger who'd just arrived in the terminal at Changi. He said they heard two bangs and saw debris flying off.

But he also said there was no panic on board because the passengers were kept informed quickly and regularly. The information was also given in German because there were a lot of German passengers, according to a passenger I'm listening to as I type.

A Qantas spokeswoman was also quickly on radio reporting everything they knew at the time.

Full marks for that. Lack of communication is usually the main complaint of people, something Qantas used to be guilty of like so many other companies.

Very quickly, Qantas have announced that their entire A380 fleet is grounded until they know exactly what caused the engine to fail.

The superjumbo was climbing after taking off from Changi and it was fortunate that no-one was hurt on the Indonesian island of Batam, because this lot landed there:




Some of the debris apparently went through the roof of a school and although there were children inside no-one was hurt.

I found the photos here.

Westin emergency

A short time ago I drove past the Westin Mina Seyahi where there was a big show of force from the emergency services



Police, fire, ambulances, rescue vehicles and plenty of people gathered about.



I don't know what the problem was, although a stretcher was out of the ambulance and there was activity around it.

It's normal in many countries to have a mass turnout of the emergency services when there's a problem in a hotel so I guess that could have been the reason for all the hardware and activity.


UPDATE

It was just a practice run folks - see the comment from the Westin for details.

Did I miss much?

Back in Dubai and, although I checked in once in a while to the UAE Community blog and the newspapers, I feel completely out of touch because things change so quickly here.

The UK announcing the highest terrorist alert warning for Dubai was the big Dubai item in the papers while we were there, although the response here seems to have been a yawn.

Waiting in my home e-mail box when I checked it this morning were three particular news items which friends thought I'd be interested in. They're three that I hadn't seen while we were away and if I'd been here I'm sure I'd have posted about them.

They were the Defence Roundabout bridge collapse, a story on damage being caused by the roadworks at The Springs and the property ownership/residence visa saga.

Thankfully no-one was killed in the bridge collapse, although five workers were injured. According to the RTA a five metre section of the under-construction bridge collapsed because of "miscalculations on the part of the contractor as a result the pillar and the scaffolding could not take the load of the bridge."

The Springs parallel roads development is not only causing angst because it changes the property from what buyers were led to believe it would be. It's apparently causing physical damage too. Heavy machinery is making villas shake and cracks are appearing in the walls.

I know, we have the same problem in Dubai Marina - tomorrow I'll post a photo of the effect the machines have on nearby buildings.

There's a second theme to this story too, one I've talked about before. All the authorities say the new developments are not their responsibility because they're private developments.

In this case the roads are being built as part of the RTA's huge parallel roads project but their comment was 'Talk to Emaar' (the Master Developer). Of course it's the old Catch 22 because Emaar says the roads are managed and regulated by the RTA.

You get dizzy going round in circles.

And the big one, the property ownership/residence visa saga rears its head again.

This time it's a mixture of inaccurate and irresponsible reporting, apparent confusion about the rules as they exist and another confidence dent for Dubai as an honest place in which to do business.

Basically the story says that residency visas based on the ownership of property will be replaced by short term, presumably visit, visas.

That actually isn't what the quoted official, Marwan Bin Galita of Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera), said. Here's the beginning of the Gulf News story:

Dubai is to introduce a set of short-term visas for foreign investors in the real estate sector, a top official said.

"We have submitted the proposals to this effect to the higher government authority in Dubai to review the visas for property buyers."

Mr Galita says that he has submitted a proposal that the rule is reviewed, the paper says 'Dubai is to introduce' the change. Those are two very different things, which the 'journalist' and the Editor should have seen.

The story goes on that Mr Galita's comments "reverse the government's earlier stand."

Mr Galita is Chief Executive of Rera, not a member of the government. I thought that only Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid had the authority to overturn previous government decisions.

I can't believe they've understood Mr Galita correctly either, because I'm sure he must be aware of the arrangement in place for property related residence visas. They quote him as saying:

"Even if the investment company applies for a residence visa for a buyer...If a development company goes bankrupt, what happens to the residents sponsored by that particular company?"

That suggests that he thinks any developer can apply for a residency visa for its buyers, and I'm sure he knows the arrangement as well as everyone else. Only the three Master Developers, Nakheel, Emaar and Dubai Properties, can apply for a residency visa, which is the arrangement put in place when freehold property was opened to foreigners. No other developer has this arrangement.

In amongst the misleading and confusing reporting there are some facts. For example, the report does explain this arrangement between Master Developers and residency department, it does say that the residency visa is not an automatic right. Overall the story is a mess.

In short, someone buying property who wants a residency visa must request the Master Developer to apply for it. If they agree to do so, the Residency Department will then decide whether to issue it. It is not an automatic right as many small developers have advertised and only the three government owned Master Developers have the arrangement.

That doesn't mean that the arrangement won't be changed of course, even though it means that what people bought and payed for is not what is delivered to them. It wouldn't be the first time people have been sold something, their money taken and then a very different product delivered.

It's a big problem for Dubai, when its future depends on business, a vital and huge part of which is real estate, business depends to a large extent on confidence but confidence & trust in Dubai as an honest place to invest keeps taking a beating.

A definitive, final, clear-cut statement from the government about this property/residence issue is urgently needed.

Here are the original stories:

Bridge collapse
The Springs.
Property/Residence

Workers killed in Ajman

At least six workers are reported to have been killed in a construction site accident in Ajman.

Latest reports say three bodies have been recovered and the company says three more workers are missing.

There are seemingly conflicting stories about exactly what happened.

What is clear is that at the Laguna Beach Hotel being built on the Corniche Road in Ajman, concrete being poured for the basement ceiling collapsed onto workers below.

I would have thought that no-one should have been working beneath concrete being poured, but it appears they had gone down to check something, and that's where the facts seem to differ.

One version is that there was a leak while the concrete was being poured and the engineer told the workers to go down to check it.

Another is that the steel supports started shaking and the workers went down to try to fix them.

Police are said to be questioning several people, including the site engineer and a consultant.


You can read the stories, and see the extent of the collapse in the photos, in Gulf News and EmBiz247, here and here.

The bridge tragedy

Further information has come to light today on the accident in which seven workers constructing a bridge at the entrance to Dubai Marina were killed.

Apparently it wasn't a bridge collapse as reported yesterday. The crane's heavy load of steel frames hit a wall, which collapsed onto nearly thirty workers.

There are two disasters to be faced by the families of the dead, the obvious grief of having lost a loved one being the first. But there's also the practical fact that they were probably the main bread-winner for their families.

At least there's help for them to deal with the second. The company have quickly confirmed that the families will receive ten years' salary in compensation. Medical expenses for the injured will also be paid by the company.

It's small comfort but at least the company seems to be doing the right thing.

It would be nice to think that it's standard practice. I wonder...

Another fatal day in Dubai's construction industry

Seven workers were killed yesterday when part of a bridge under construction collapsed. Twenty-four of their colleagues were injured, although thankfully none of these are said to be serious.

The need for the bridge is because there was oviously a serious planning error in the design of Dubai Marina. On the ocean side, where the beach hotels and Jumeirah Beach Residence are located, there is only a small bridge with one lane in either direction to cross the marina entrance.

The planners incrediby thought that would be enough for tens of thousands of people to come and go.

Let me remind you what JBR looks like, and this is just a very small part of it:



JBR claims to be the world's largest single-phase development with 40 towers, four of which are hotels. It covers a one mile length and will be home to 25,000 people. There are also dozens of towers on the other side of the road, plus more than half a dozen existing hotels. A bridge with one lane in either direction was considered to be sufficient.

Astonishing.

We can't blame the RTA for that doozy, it was done long before they were formed. I do hope the people responsible were dealt with harshly.

The cause of yesterday's tragedy is said to be human error - a crane placed a huge load of iron rods on the upper part of the bridge, far too heavy for the under-construction bridge according to a statement from Mattar Al Tayer of the RTA. The seven workers were killed instantly and a fleet of rescue helicopters airlifted the injured to Rashid Hospital.

A committee of officials from the RTA, Dubai Police and Public Prosecutors has been formed to investigate the acident. I hope they include something I've talked about before - site supervision.

Jebel Ali in the news

I had to go into Jebel Ali just after eight this morning and the smoke from the warehouse fire was thick, black and billowing.

According to reports it was in a chemical warehouse, which is a worry. The authorities are currently taking air readings for pollution, and presumably to work out what has been released into the air.

The wind was blowing the smoke out towards the ocean so hopefully it won't cause any health problems.

On the way back the traffic was at a standstill on Sheikh Zayed Road. The police had closed the road for a rescue helicopter to land on it, so I assumed there had been a bad accident.

However, after ten minutes or so the chopper took off and the road was re-opened. I saw no evidence of any accident, the road was completely clear. My guess is that there must have been an accident on the Metro construction which is right at the side of the road.

Anyone heard anything about that?

All the drama and it was the one day I didn't have my camera with me!

More tragic similarities

A couple of news stories in the last two days, thousands of kilometres apart but, as with the storms, similar backgrounds - this time it's construction site accidents.

Today the papers are reporting scaffolding collapse in Dubai in which there were deaths and injuries. Gulf News reports one dead while 7Days says two dead and twenty-three injured.


Photo: Tracy Brand. Gulf News

A similar accident to Dubai's was reported in London on Tuesday, when a building undergoing renovation collapsed. It seems there were injuries but no deaths.


Photo: BBC website

For decades cynics here, especially Europeans, have joked about building standards, with the implication that it only happens in Dubai.

I've heard over the years that the Trade Centre was tilting, Al Ghurair Centre's foundations were not good enough and the building would collapse, Shindagah Tunnel was going to leak and then collapse, and the same old stories are being trotted out about the new developments.

As the London event shows, and many others around the world, cutting corners, shonky builders, disdain for safety measures, lack of serious inspection and non-enforcement of rules can and do cause tragic accidents - not just in Dubai but just about anywhere.

Gulf News story.

7Days story.

The buck stops where?

From Ras Al Khaimah comes the story that three people out for a stroll fell into an unmarked open manhole, having to be rescued by Civil Defence.

Gulf News says:

"The three expatriates were taking a walk in the neighbourhood with some of their friends on the day the incident occurred. They were not aware that there was a huge hole in the street and fell in, their friends said.

It raises an interesting point because in Australia, and most other western countries, there would be a court case against the authorities. Compensation payments amounting to possibly millions of dollars would be paid. Then there would be panic measures to make sure anything even vaguely likely to be a hazard was in future clearly marked so that even an idiot could recognise the 'danger'.

Here the onus is on the individual to be responsible for him/herself.

I must say I lean towards the latter - with the proviso that the perpetrators have some responsibility based on that most uncommon commodity, common sense. The west has gone too far one way, here we're too far the other. As always, the answer is somewhere in between.

An unprotected hole in a badly lit street isn't acceptable. A dangerous overhang isn't acceptable. But a warning on a hot-water tap that the water is hot is a step too far.

We have many examples in Australia of idiots who dive off bridges into a foot of water, obviously crippling themselves. They successfully sue the council concerned, being awarded millions, because there wasn't a warning sign in place. You know..."If you dive headfirst into a foot of water from a height of twenty feet you're likely to hurt yourself".

Let's not go to to those extremes, but I do think it's something the authorities here need to look at. Personal responsibility, yes. But also the enforcement of some sensible health & safety regulations.

The Gulf News story is here

Another construction site death.

What a bad few days this has been for construction workers. The roof collapse, the tower fire, now scaffolding collapse.

One worker dead and two seriously injured, the reports say, when scaffolding they were standing on collapsed. This was on a thirteen storey building in Al Nahda, behind Sahara Centre.


Photo. Asghar Khan/Gulf News

There are suggestions that vibrations from digging for cable-laying nearby might have been the cause. That's another thing for the authorities to investigate.

There's an obvious need for safety standards to be imposed on construction sites as a matter of extreme urgency. The two injured workers are said to have escaped death because they had their safety belts on.

I suppose there are two positives to have come out of the recent tragedies. One is the spotlight that's been focused on safety issues. Hopefully this will mean less accidents in the future.

The other is that the companies involved have been quick to offer compensation to the families of the victims and to injured workers. The company involved in this latest incident say they will cover the medical bills, no wages of workers undergoing medical treatment will be cut and the dead worker's family will be compensated. He was only 25.



Gulf News story: Scaffolding collapse kills worker.

Tower fire update

There's better news today about the fire in the inaptly named Fortune Tower.

They now say that two workers died as a result of the fire, not four as earlier reported. And less were injured than the earlier reports, the figure is now thirty-seven.

Still too much death and injury, but better than the original figures.

It's also been announced by the Fortune Investment Group that they will pay compensation to the families of the dead men and to injured workers. That's over and above any legal insurance claims and any compensation that may be paid by the contractors.

Reports of four dead in tower fire.

Sadly the fire at Jumeirah Lake Towers yesterday is reported to have cost four workers their lives.




Photo. David Renkwitz. Gulf News.


Many more were hospitalised but thankfully the biggest problems seem to be smoke inhalation and minor burns and all are expected to recover quickly.

The emergency services seem to have done an excellent job, so congratulations to everyone involved. I have enormous respect for the emergency services, especially firefighters. I've said in my posts about the Aussie bushfires that the word 'hero' has been overused to the point of it being meaningless, but firefighters to me are true heroes. They run towards the thing that the rest of us are running away from in terror.

Apart from the deaths and injuries there were some other worrying aspects about the emergency that became apparent.

Safety standards

The first is site safety and safety training for employees. There seem to be several things that need to be looked at as a matter of urgency, not only at this site but at all others, indicated by this report:

Speaking from Dubai Hospital where he was being treated for smoke inhalation, Moataz Khalil, the general supervisor at the site said the first couple of floors were blocked.

"There was a special lift but the workers could not access it," he said.

He said when he rushed in with Civil Defence officers, the place was engulfed in smoke and there was only darkness. "The staircase from the beginning of the 15th floor was locked and I had to unlock all the doors," he said.

He said they ran up through the fire escape staircase and as they reached the 15th floor, one Civil Defence officer started helping the workers stuck on the higher floors.

"The workers were in a very shaky state. The very brave Civil Defence worker and I tried our best to get everyone out," he said.

"Some of the workers escaped the fire and smoke hanging onto wires outside the building and others were taken by the Civil Defence worker and me to the roof," he said.

Lifts not accessible, doors locked, workers not trained where to go, how to escape the fire? Surely that shouldn't be acceptable.

Emergency service locations

The other thing is the emergency services vehicles having to fight the traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road to try to get to the site.

Jumeirah Lake Towers is in the midst of 'New Dubai', with its hundreds of towers, thousands of villas, plus malls, hotels and so on. Surely long ago we should have had fire, police, ambulance stationed in the area. A public hospital too.

They have a hard enough job to do and people's lives depend on their rapid response. To give them the added obstacle of fighting traffic on the busiest road in Dubai to get to the scene is asking too much.

The stories are in Gulf News: Tower fire traps workers.

Major fire at construction site

Not a good week for the labourers of Dubai.

Yesterday we had reports of a roof collapse which caused one death and several injuries, on a construction site in Academic City.

This afternoon there was a fire towards the top of a building under construction at Jumeirah Lake Towers. There are reports of one worker falling to his death, others rescued from the roof by helicopter. The Gulf News story has a photo which I'm afraid seems to show the worker falling.

I just went to check and the fire is out. Emergency services, police, fire, ambulances, are there in big numbers and a helicopter is still buzzing about.


The yellow fire trucks and ambulances in big numbers.

You can see from the photo below that the building has a flat roof so I guess that many workers would have gone there to wait for the helicopters.



There are burn marks, from smoke I imagine, on the top three floors on the far right of the photo.

Gulf News' story is at Rescue drama after building fire.

The previous day's bad news is at Worker dies as roof collapses.