It was a long trip home for Francis Flynn among a party of 194 people who finally touched down at Dublin airport at 4.45 in the morning on Sunday morning from Muscat in Oman. What had started off as a short holiday to Dubai with his son Ciarán, who was officiating for the Gaa hurling final, into a horrendous ordeal to get home. In the aftermath of the missile attacks into Dubai and other Arab states following the attacks on Iran by US/Israel, the whole region has turned into a dangerous environment to be caught up in.
However, Francis felt relatively safe given the defence systems in Dubai. The ‘hairy moments’ were seeing missiles flying over the sky at night and there was concern just as the game on Saturday finished. People were running to the pavilion to see what was happening. All the plans for a presentation and a few more days of sightseeing and leisure went out the window. It was all about trying to get home. His son Ciarán did get tickets on Emirates for Francis and a number of others, but with the airspace closed down all flights were cancelled with a few exceptions.
The final option hole was the uptake of tickets from Muscat in Oman. From Dubai it is a marathon trip with a 500 km drive through the desert, ”it is a desert!’ as Francis recalled on the long drive to Muscat, Oman. They left the hotel at 4.00 am on Saturday with five buses travelling in convoy. It was a journey that brought them through UAE and Oman borders which took an hour and a half and two hours respectively to clear passport control, (something we take for granted in the EU). When they got to Muscat the flight had been cancelled and the party was put up in a hotel. more waiting.
Francis described it as ” a lot of travelling and delays”. Finally they boarded for Dublin in Muscat and flew to via Cairo for refueling and change of pilots. On take off there was ”fierce rattling”, the captain abandoned the take off and there was another four hours sitting in the plane as the fault was rectified. The captain assured the passengers ”safety was his priority” before they finally made the flight home.
”There was no mass hysteria, people were calm” when we landed but everyone was happy to be back home. He was exhausted from the trip when we spoke to him yesterday as he was catching up on some much needed sleep. He told us too, while in Dubai they had met an Irish woman with a three month baby trying to get home to visit her sick dad but had to turn back for Australia. That was sad and brings the reality of how we are all affected by this outbreak of war in the Middle East. You can’t take peace for granted.
Thanks to Francis Flynn for sharing his story with us at Meath Live. Pictured above Ciarán and Francis at the game in Dubai last Saturday week.
