Dubai-based PR executive Sunaira Sohail recounts witnessing a blast at Riyadh airport, spending 26 hours stranded in the terminal, and taking an overnight bus back to the UAE after her Bangkok trip was disrupted.
A solo trip to Bangkok for a concert turned into a four-day ordeal for Dubai resident Sunaira Sohail after a Houthi attack on Riyadh airport disrupted her travel plans, leaving her stranded in Saudi Arabia.
“I felt like the world was ending. I genuinely thought there was no way back,” Sohail, a Dubai-based public relations executive, told Khaleej Times after returning to the UAE.
She recalled spending 26 hours inside Riyadh airport’s terminal, witnessing a nearby blast and eventually taking an overnight bus back to the UAE.
Sohail was queuing at a counter to update her boarding pass for her onward flight to Bangkok when the missile struck.
“It (the blast) literally happened right next to us. The impact was so huge that we were pushed to the left. When we looked to the right, the entire place was filled with smoke,” she said.
Alarms sounded, but Sohail said no personnel were initially available to guide passengers.
“People were screaming and crying,” she recalled, adding that officials eventually directed everyone to the arrivals area. Transit passengers without entry stamps worried they would be unable to re-enter the airport, but officials told them not to worry.
The blast also disrupted phone networks and airport Wi-Fi, preventing Sohail from contacting her family in Dubai.
According to the report, more than 4,000 flights across Saudi Arabia’s airports had been cancelled since Houthi attacks intensified on October 8. Saudi authorities had closed Riyadh airport until October 17.
Flight Delays Leave Passengers Stranded
Sohail said she had called the airline hours before departure to ask whether regional tensions would affect her journey. She was told her flight was operating as scheduled.
“But I had this intuitive feeling that something was not right. I was reading Quran the entire time because I was really scared,” she said.
She arrived at Riyadh airport at 1.30 am, with her connecting flight to Bangkok scheduled for 2:30 a.m. However, the departure time was repeatedly pushed back, first to 5.30 am and then 7.30 am0am.
Passengers eventually boarded the aircraft at 10.30 am and remained inside for more than two hours before being asked to disembark and return to the terminal.
By then, Sohail said, she had spent around 26 hours at the airport.
“Like in the movie ‘The Terminal’, we were stuck there for 26 hours,” she said.
Passengers Struggle to Find Food and Accommodation
Sohail said stranded passengers went without accommodation, food and water for hours, while the airline did not provide the assistance they expected.
Passengers were later told that accommodation was available for people with Saudi visas at a cost of £140. Some applied for visas out of desperation, while Sohail decided to wait for another promised 2:30 a.m. departure to Bangkok.
She and a few friends then took a free shuttle intended to transport stranded passengers to hotels. After spending about two hours travelling between fully booked hotels, the driver dropped them near a metro station.
“They said, ‘Go find your own accommodation,’” she recalled.
The group eventually found an Airbnb about 15 minutes from the airport. They made the booking after police told them the airport would reopen the following day. It did not.
Missing Luggage and a Difficult Journey Home
With her luggage missing, Sohail spent days seeking answers from officials. She said the airline directed her to the airport, while the airport said the bags were the airline’s responsibility.
She also struggled to obtain documentation confirming that she had been evacuated.
Some of her friends travelled to Doha, Qatar, before taking connecting flights to the UK and the US.
Sohail eventually applied for an urgent visa and boarded a bus from Riyadh at 4 p.m. The bus reached Abu Dhabi at 9 am the following day.
Even during the journey back to the UAE, passengers received alerts about hostile threats.
“We got the alert and looked up, and right in front of our eyes, an interception happened. It’s something you only see in movies,” she said.
More than five days after the ordeal began, Sohail said she had still not received her luggage or refunds.
“It was the complete opposite of what I had imagined for my first solo trip. But, thank God, I’m back in the UAE. And that’s the best part,” she said.
Read more news and follow us on Instagram.
Screengrab from a video of the attack on Riyadh airport released by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen
Source: KT
