Perhaps somewhat now redundant, the following info was relayed to me from a friend.
. . . . Gulf Air Pilot
I had the misfortune of hearing the whole chain of events while we
were going from Kuwait to Abu Dhabi. As time goes by and more
information is gathered and released, the picture will become clearer.
We were in Bahraini airspace when we heard the mayday of a "Fire on
the 'Deck'" and an immediate descent to 10,000'. The captain requested
vectors back to Dubai immediately. As the moments passed the whole
cockpit filled with smoke and the CA indicated he could not see any
instruments at all. With no visual reference and all instruments
unreadable as well as difficulty relaying messages and getting
information (reentered UAE FIR but was still talking to BAH 'cause he
couldn't change frequencies). Altitudes, headings etc had to be
relayed from UAE to BAH to airborne aircraft to UPS and back again (A
MESS to say the least). Wound up straight in for 12L at DXB at 10
miles and 7,000'. Couldn't circle because he couldn't see anything.
Turned south of the airport -blind- the whole while altitudes are
being read to him. It was of no use. The aircraft crashed into a
fairly unpopulated area (thankful for that at least). Words can't
express the whole situation adequately.
. . . . Speed Bird Capt
En route to Iraq, I heard pretty much everything from when they
declared their emergency overhead Bahrain due smoke in the flightdeck,
through their descent and pleas for altitude readouts because they
couldn't see their instruments, or change frequency, to hearing ATC
shout "climb immediately" and then calmly say "loss of radar
contact"...
To hear the initial panic and plain fear during their transmissions
(in real time as opposed to a DVR playback on a documentary) has been
the most chilling event in my 25 years of flying.
My heart is with their families.