Tourists stranded in UAE return home: first Belavia evacuation flight lands in Minsk
Belavia has scheduled special evacuation flights from Dubai for March 3, 4, and 5: planes from Minsk will fly empty to the Emirates, and tourists from the UAE will return on them. The first such flight landed at Minsk airport tonight, writes Onliner.by.
— The Boeing 737-800 is moving along a safe route, bypassing potentially dangerous territories. Due to the detour, the aircraft will land in Aktau (Kazakhstan) for refueling and then head to Minsk National Airport, — Belavia reported on the evening of March 3.
According to the Dubai airport departure board, the flight departed from the UAE at 17:16 Minsk time. It then took a circuitous route – via Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.
Half an hour before the "Dubai" flight landed, the arrivals area was already lively. The airport received another "unscheduled" plane that arrived from Oman's capital. Not happy, refreshed tourists are disembarking, but rather those whose vacation ended before it even began. These are passengers from the Minsk-Salalah flight, which on the afternoon of March 3 failed to reach the Omani resort and landed in Muscat.
The reason is the same conflict between Israel, the US, and Iran that has affected the entire Middle East. According to data from the Turkish news agency Anadolu, on Tuesday Oman (flights to which were allowed just the day before) was subjected to drone attacks. An alarm was triggered at Salalah airport – the Belavia crew only learned about it on approach. As a result, the aircraft was diverted to Muscat, from where it returned to Minsk.
People emerge from passport control sleepy and nervous, turning their faces away from cameras. It's understandable: after almost a day of sitting non-stop on a plane, posing is not a priority. Some are in such a hurry to leave the airport that they even agree to the services of local "taxi drivers." One passenger, after a journalist's question "How's the mood?", couldn't restrain his sarcasm:
— F***ing [great]! Flew — boom!
— We were informed that the flight was being diverted to an alternate airport about 40 minutes before landing. After landing in Muscat, we probably just sat in the cabin for three hours. Why weren't we allowed out? It wasn't explained: just 'no' and that was it. While sitting, I read the news and found out what had happened, because no one had told us anything about it either. Then, of course, it got scary... But the atmosphere on the plane was normal: people mostly just wanted to get some fresh air already, — shared Irina, the man's travel companion, detailing the experience.
Inna was planning to relax in Salalah with her daughter: the woman bought the ten-day tour back in October. "We 'rested'…," the tourist laughs nervously, adding that the child was upset, and she herself had somehow foreseen such an outcome.
— When all this started, I asked the tour operator if the flight would happen. They reassured me: everything will be fine. Yes, Oman was open then, but suspicions crept in… In the end, we just spent 23 hours on the plane. The tour operator has already contacted me, offered alternatives — we will discuss all this today. The return flight was, of course, difficult. I have health issues, and all my pills were left in my luggage. But they provided food and water — in that regard, I have no complaints about Belavia. Overall, we landed and thank God for that.
At 2:35, finally, the plane from Dubai. 189 passengers who could not get on the February 28 flight arrived in Minsk on it.
Here the picture is already more joyful than half an hour ago: smiles, hugs, flowers. Well, the vacation did happen after all, and even continued, albeit at the cost of hundreds of nervous cells.
Although the departing tourists are not complaining; on the contrary, they only note the coordinated work of the airline staff and Dubai hotels, and also the prompt communication: chats were created in messengers for those awaiting evacuation flights, where all the latest news about the situation was provided.
— On the 28th, we were already waiting for departure, but after about an hour, we were told that the sky was closed. We stayed at the airport for another three hours, waiting for news, but when it became clear that the airport was also closing, everyone started to be evacuated, — says Taisia. — I want to note that Belavia representatives worked very professionally: we were organized, seated on buses according to lists. Almost everyone from our flight was taken to one hotel (a very good one), but some were also accommodated in others.
All these days, full board was provided: breakfast, lunch, dinner. At the hotel, such a calm atmosphere was created for us that I didn't even understand: was this a continuation of our vacation or what… The events, of course, were terrifying, but at least we were in complete comfort. Of course, we heard the air defense system working, the first night was "something else"… In general, we heard sounds, and sirens went off on our phones. But we didn't go down [to a shelter], there was nowhere to go in our hotel.
Since the hotel was further away from the places where things were arriving, everything went with the least emotional cost — at least for my husband and me. Now it's even difficult to understand [what happened], it will probably take a couple of days to fully comprehend.
But most likely, our next vacation will be in Belarusian sanatoriums!
Pavel and Oksana were vacationing in Fujairah with their children. On Saturday morning, the family arrived at Dubai airport and managed to check in calmly, but it quickly became clear that the flight, scheduled for 11:10, would not take off. Initially, the departure was postponed to 16:00, then, after the closure of Iranian airspace, it was canceled completely.
— We didn't manage to get to the gate. Although a plane, I think to India, was supposed to depart around the same time as us — they managed to board. Their flight also didn't take off in the end, but according to some internal rules, passengers remained seated on the plane. At least we could walk around the airport, and ate at McDonald's. But they only got food from KFC about five hours later — it was delivered directly to the plane in huge carts, — Pavel recalls.
Belarusians, like the other passengers on the flight, were taken to a Dubai hotel by 23:00. Belavia representatives asked them to be "on standby": according to Oksana, it was initially expected that the plane to Minsk would still depart at 5 AM the next day. However, the family ended up staying at the hotel for three more days.
— They fed us for free, everything was fine. True, for two days we weren't allowed out anywhere. We could hear "shooting" on the 28th and the next day. We lived on the outskirts, so the sounds didn't reach us as strongly — in the center, in Dubai Marina, they said it was louder. Very loud notifications came to our phones, they made us feel a bit uneasy… But there was no need to go down anywhere: neither to a shelter nor to the parking lot.
— Overall, do you consider your vacation ruined?
— When we landed, it was as if everything was fine. Well, it will be an experience… I think people have already gotten used to the fact that something can go wrong on trips: first COVID, then something else that seemed unreal. No one at the beginning of the vacation could have imagined that both the sky and Dubai airport would close — it seemed absurd. But it turned out, anything can happen.
Even now we departed an hour later, because there were still issues with the airspace, rockets continued to fly somewhere. The airport, by the way, was almost completely empty: apart from our flight, maybe two or three others were scheduled. We flew normally, calmly: there was definitely no feeling of being in an action movie with everyone in a panic.
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