Derry family stranded in Dubai speak of explosions as flights cancelled
A Derry family have spoken of how they were preparing to fly home from Dubai Airport when an emergency evacuation was enacted as missile strikes rocked the United Arab Emirates city and several other locations across the Middle East.
Fiona and Damian Gallagher are currently in Dubai with their daughters Niamh and Bronagh, both of whom live in Liverpool, and Bronagh’s partner Derri.
The trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) city had been arranged as a 21st birthday present for their daughter.
The family arrived on Tuesday, February 23 and were due to return on Saturday. They made their way to Dubai Airport for their flight to Manchester, and dropped their bags off at check-in. At around the same time a series of missile attacks where launched by Iran across the Middle East following the US-Israeli assault on the country.
Fiona, who owns and runs Redz Hairdressers on Spencer Road in Derry, told the Journal on Sunday night: “When we went to the airport, there was no problem. Checking in was normal. We just heard in the news that Israel and America had attacked Iran.”
They then heard that their flight was not going ahead and made their way back to the baggage claim before going to the Emirates airline desk to find out what was happening.
They were subsequently transferred to a hotel 45 minutes away from the airport, with tailbacks on the roads as panic set in across the city.
"The airport was a nightmare with big crowds, but well managed,” Fiona said. “They put us in buses to hotels.
"A lot of people were panicking and still are panicking because they don’t know what’s happening,” Fiona said. “Emirates hasn’t really told us much. We’re supposed to find out at 3 o’clock Dubai time tomorrow when we’re flying home or what’s happening."
A series of explosions have rocked Dubai and other parts of the UAE with many areas effectively in lockdown over the past two days.
Dubai Airport – the busiest airport in the world – has been shut down along with several others across the Middle East, leaving thousands of passengers stranded, in limbo and awaiting news of when they will be able to leave.
Fiona said they have heard “a lot of bombs going off in distance” and seen “black smoke in sky” over the past 24 hours,
"When we landed at the hotel we got into our rooms. We heard a few explosions so panicked, we went outside to see what we could see. All you could see was black smoke on the sky. It was four or five miles from the hotel.
"There are two young English girls in the room beside us and they were really bad with anxiety and really scared so we told them to come to the room to us to calm them down.
"There was three bombs went off this morning, but we’ve had nothing this evening.”
Fiona said the hotel they were taken to is amazing and the staff have been lovely, and the family are hopeful they will get some news in the coming hours.
"We haven’t heard anything at all, we’re hoping to hear tomorrow for Emirates.”
Making contact and getting information in or out of Dubai is not easy at present, and Fiona said she would “just like to say to tell my sister Louise Gallagher who lives in Letterkenny not to be worrying, that we’re okay”.