AVIATION/ UPS FL6 PILOTS OFFERED DOHA ALTERNATE

The Pilots of the UPS Boeing 747-400 which crashed in Dubai on September 3, had been offered the chance to land at Doha after receiving a fire warning on the airliner. The fire warning came about 28 minutes after Flight 6 has departed from Dubai and while the crew was in contact with Bahrain air traffic control. Investigators from the United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority said that the crew was offered Doha, the capital of Qatar, as a diversion. But the Pilots opted instead to return to Dubai. Initial analysis of the aircraft's flight recorders, says the GCAA, show that the situation deteriorated, with cockpit visibility becoming increasingly poor. The crew declared a 'Mayday' but the inquiry has already determined that the 747, N571UP, was too high as it attempted to land at Dubai, and overflew the Airport before descending and crashing just west of the Dubai Silicon Oasis complex and north of the Minhad air base. Neither of the crew members survived the crash. The GCAA says the cockpit-voice recorder and flight-data recorder were transported to the facilities of the US NTSB on September 10, where their data was downloaded.