Motorists stuck on Al Garhoud Bridge during the morning rush hour yesterday got a shock when they saw a plane heading straight towards them or apparently ditching in the water.
Mobile phones were picked up and hundreds of excited calls went out as a three-engine Dornier seaplane slowly banked and skimmed across the water before coming to a halt.
Nizar, a Lebanese salesman who works close to the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, said: "I heard the noise of a plane coming down near the Dubai Creekside. I thought it was going to crash into the water. When we looked up we saw this old grey plane."
People also started calling newspapers and radio stations to tell them what was happening.
But unknown to many, there's a lot of history to the aircraft - a similar flying boat used to land on the Creek in the 1940s, a long time before Dubai International Airport was built.
According to Dubai Civil Aviation sources, the seaplane was piloted by Iren Dornier, grandson of Dr Claude Dornier, the founder of the Dornier aircraft manufacturer.
He is recreating the historic feat by his grandfather who flew around the globe in a similar plane in 1929.
The aircraft saw action in World War II to evacuate Germans. It was built in 1939 and Iren pulled it out of an aviation museum in Germany and refurbished to make it airworthy. He then started his journey from the Philippines for a round-the-world journey for charity.
He plans to travel through 50 countries in 11 months. The trip will also help raise funds for disadvantaged children under Unicef's programme.
The Department of Civil Aviation has waived all landing, parking and refuelling fees to help in the fund-raising project.
The Dubai stopover by the Dornier was not a very well publicised affair and residents like Raju, an Indian national who lives in Karama, was one of the people who presumed there was a problem when he heard an unusual sound overhead. "My friends and I thought it was a plane in trouble."
Soha, a Jordanian saleswoman at an insurance company near Al Garhoud Bridge, said this was a unique experience for her. "It is the first time I have seen a plane landing on water," she said.
A demonstration flight is set to take place today from 9.30am on the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club.
Ideal search-and-rescue plane The Dornier Do 24 was designed before World War II for a Dutch requirement and were built in the Netherlands. Later they were built in Germany and France.
The Do 24 is a three-engined flying boat in the Dornier style of wide shallow fuselage with the engines fitted on a broad chord wing mounted above the fuselage with side sponsons at the water line. There were no outrigger floats. During World War II it was used for long range reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and transport.
The aircraft could carry a crew of six and fly at a maximum speed of 340kph. The plane had a maximum length of 22.05 metres, could fly at an altitude of 5,900 metres and had a range of about 4,800km.
Gulf News
