Airline safety issue strikes a chord with readers

DUBAI -  The issue of airline safety following a technical fault that forced an Emirates flight to return to Dubai airport 20 minutes after takeoff last week has struck a chord with Yahoo! Maktoob readers.

The responses received ranged from serious concern over flight safety issues to the reasons why people chose a particular airline.

The Emirates flight to Colombo was forced to return to Dubai due to a "technical failure," the company said on Thursday. It said the Boeing 777 plane landed safely and all passengers disembarked.

Many comments were supportive of Emirates and vouched for its safety record, while some asked the Dubai-based carrier to increase safety measures as it expands at a fast pace.

"They should seriously look into the issue. Also, when they expand their business, they should not compromise in quality," a reader, Riyaz, wrote in comments on our website.

Emirates has been expanding its fleet and service network at a furious pace and has ordered tens of billions of dollars worth of planes.

Many readers praised the pilot for landing the aircraft safely back at Dubai airport.

"The crew acted professionally and the aircraft returned safely. Well done Emirates," wrote Ed Pronk.

Considering last month's Qantas engine failure on one of its A380s, it was not surprising readers expressed concern about engine problems in general, even though Emirates does not use the Rolls-Royce make that caused the problems.

Abdul Shukoor commented that "engineers should inspect the engine and secure the condition of the engine properly before each departure."

Many readers drew our attention to the accompanying photograph of an Emirates A380 plane, pointing out if the problem involved a Boeing 777 then why we used a different aircraft to present the story.

Our editors used the photograph to identify the company mentioned in the story; it was not to suggest which type of aircraft was involved in the incident.

Some people dismissed the incident altogether. One reader who used the name "Oracle" wondered: "Is it such a big issue to show it on main page?"

The fact that it was one of our popular stories that day, justified our decision to display it prominently.