Dubai Airport accidentally breaks Saudi plane with water cannon salute

One passenger was injured during the attempted tribute

A water cannon salute damaged a Saudi plane and injured a passenger after it landed at Dubai International Airport.

A ceremonial gesture in the aviation industry, typically performed for a special occasion such as an inaugural flight or a final service, the cannon was honouring Saudi Arabia National Day, according to a report into the incident by the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA),

So after the plane arrived from Jeddah, Dubai International Airport deployed two water cannons to welcome the aircraft as it taxied towards the terminal.

Onboard the Airbus A320 aircraft were two pilots, five cabin crew and 119 passengers, who were unaware that a water cannon salute was planned, the GCAA report said.

Two fire engines began spraying jets of water to form an arch across the top of the taxiing plane, it added.

As a result, one of the fire engines malfunctioned, and a high-pressure stream of water was “suddenly sprayed upwards and then downwards” before hitting the aircraft, the report said.

This caused one of the plane’s emergency hatches to fall open and into the cabin, which then automatically deployed the emergency slide.

The passenger seated in the adjacent seat was "slightly injured".

The report concluded that the cause of the incident was “the erratic directional movement of the water jet onto the push panel of the left forward over-wing emergency exit hatch, which, when pushed inwards, resulted in the emergency exit hatch opening and falling into the cabin, slightly injuring the passenger seated in the window seat".

A spokesperson for Dubai Airpors told The Independent in a statement: "Dubai Airports confirms that the mechanical failure of the water turret controller on one of its fire trucks resulted in the deployment of an over wing exit chute on an arriving aircraft in September last year.

"Immediately following the incident, and working with the vehicle manufacturer and regulatory authorities, Dubai Airports conducted a thorough inspection of its fleet of fire trucks and reviewed its water salute procedures to ensure the fault was not in evidence elsewhere and to prevent any future recurrence.”

There was no damage to the plane, and passengers disembarked the aircraft normally.