Escaping Dubai: An American-Italian describes his ordeal getting out during a war

(This is the first of a three-part series on the Iran War from an Italian perspective.)

Domenico Marino had a message for the world Saturday. He had not only survived Dubai after the Iran bombing attack Feb. 28, more amazingly, he survived Dubai’s chaotic airport.

“Due to the uncertainty of the current situation and the government warnings in place, I would not advise traveling to the Middle -East right now,” he said from Malta after five days of cancelled flights.

His message hit home with me. I’m going to the Middle East. 

Marina and I are flying Qatar Airways through Doha, Qatar, March 24 on our way to my 70th birthday celebration in the Maldive Islands. Doha’s Hamad International Airport has remained closed (except for evacuation and some cargo flights) since the day the United States and Israel bombed Iran Feb. 28, launching a war across the Persian Gulf that no one knows when it will end.

We have 15 days for events to unfold in our favor. But Marina is freaking out. She foresees Iran blasting passenger jets out of the sky. I didn’t laugh it off but rolling my eyes sufficiently crossed our shrinking language barrier. The last passenger jet that a military blew up in midair was a Ukraine International Airlines jet in 2020. By whom?

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Leaving Tehran, 176 died. 

TCC members

I know Domenico. The Italian-American, raised in Brooklyn but with a home in Martina Franca, Puglia, is a member of my Travelers’ Century Club’s Mediterranean Chapter. We met three years ago on a TCC trip to Algeria and last April hung out on another TCC trip at Mount Athos monasteries in Greece. We bonded over our dislike of modern travel’s new wave of country counters.

Known as Dome’, he’s a good guy. The 47-year-old is well traveled and, working in aviation regulation, he knows air travel better than anyone I know. His advice was so chilling, I’m hoping Marina doesn’t read this blog.

Because Dome’ sounded like her prediction wasn’t crazy.

“In the process of regime change, there are no clear lines of authority,” he said. “It tells me that the big risk now is some real hothead extremist general or lieutenant or anybody with access to weapons might use them in a way even the Ayatollah wouldn’t have: to attack civilian targets.

“Although I trust the defense capabilities of the Gulf States and the aviation authorities there who have an excellent safety reputation, I would personally avoid traveling to or through the Middle East right now. The situation is far from predictable.”

He landed in Zagreb Thursday and needed a day to decompress. If you saw the video of the chaos at Dubai International last week, you can understand. It made the Last Day in Saigon look like Friday night bowling. Thousands of people crammed at airline counters and gates, demanding answers to impossible situations.

He heard explosions. He saw smoke from his hotel window. His cell phone received bomb alerts.

Dubai logistics

However, the biggest problem wasn’t the danger. It was the chaos getting out. In Dubai for work, he was scheduled to fly to Berlin and five hours before his departure, Iran’s first bombs hit Abu Dhabi’s air base. The United Arab Emirates closed down the air space.

He was originally booked Saturday on Eurowings for Dubai to Berlin to Malta where he also has a home. It was cancelled. Eurowings rebooked him from Dubai to Athens to Berlin Wednesday. That got cancelled on Monday. Then he booked Dubai-Malta direct for Wednesday.

That got cancelled early Wednesday morning about eight hours before departure.

“Then I kind of resigned myself to, well, maybe I need to wait for this whole thing to pass,” he said. “My partner said, ‘No, we’ve got to stay at it. We’ve got to stay at it.’”

Then at 2:20 a.m. Thursday, they finally found a Dubai-Zagreb flight that left at 9:20 a.m. Three hours before the flight, as they monitored the flight status, it wasn’t cancelled. They went to the airport.

Then came the second biggest surprise of the week. They were flying business class which has a different check-in facilities than economy in Dubai.

“When I went through there, it was dead,” he said. “It was like if you flew during Covid, it felt like that. What happened was they closed a lot of the restaurants. They closed the lounges. They closed pretty much anything not directly related to flights. It felt very eerie.

“Sure enough, when we got there (Dubai airport), there was no problem checking in, no problem going through security or customs. Everything was like it normally would be except everything was shut down and was eerie.”

The strangest thing? The plane was half full. They spent the night in Zagreb and found a Zagreb-Vienna-Malta flight, arriving in Malta Friday at 10:30 p.m.

He said Eurowings, his original carrier, paid for their hotels as they waited to leave. They also paid the astronomical €4,000 each for the price to Zagreb as the airlines’ regulations state they’d replace the original class of fare in case of cancellation.

Waiting game

Meanwhile, Marina and I wait. We’re monitoring the war. We’re monitoring Doha’s airport. LastMinute.com, the travel agency that booked our Maldive package deal, said Qatar Airways will notify us 24-48 hours in advance whether our flight will leave.

If cancelled, LastMinute can refund us or we can reschedule. I don’t know if they’ll refund us if the flight leaves and we decide not to risk it. We have travel insurance but it covers missed flights for health and family reasons and cancellations.

It doesn’t cover fear.

Maybe that will change if the war heightens. Maybe we won’t have to wait until 24 hours before departure if Iran bombs Doha back to the Stone Age. I told Marina if the flight is on, I want to be on it.

The last time we discussed it, she shook her head while watching videos of smoke and flames rising in the Middle East.

“Everybody has different risk appetites for what they’re willing to do,” Dome’ said. “For me, it was more risky to stay on the ground with the unknown than to take a flight. People were saying, ‘What are you doing getting on a plane now? It’s more risky.’

“I said I know more about protecting aircraft in those countries. I know more about what it takes for an aircraft to fly. You have to get clearance from the military. You have to get clearance from the aviation authority.You have to get clearance from the insurance underwriters. They’re not going to let that plane take off unless they’re convinced.”

However, that’s international. During a war in the Middle East, the rules are different.

“What I don’t trust is a political situation to be stable enough that this is going to last,” he said. “Which is why my personal advice is if you’re there, it’s a good idea to follow your government’s advice, whatever government. I’m a citizen of two countries. One is the U.S. which is the one doing the war. Their advice was to leave, which is what I did.”

I told him about Marina’s fear. I hoped he’d give her some soothing advice. He didn’t. Damn him.

“I’d go more along the lines of Marina,” he said. “You know how Italians are. We’re very risk averse on things like this. Part of what I had to do through all this, which was even worse than hearing explosions and seeing the smoke and getting those missile alerts, was hearing everybody in my family call me crying.

“‘OK. Don’t worry. I’m going to be fine.’ ‘No! No! No! You’ve got to get out of there now! Run to the border with Oman!’”

Maybe it’s my 10 years living in Vegas, but if our flight is leaving, I like our odds of not getting shot down over a desert in Qatar. But this is an illegal, undeclared war with a regime change. Iran’s policies are shifting faster than the sands of Sahara in a windstorm. 

On Sunday, I saw Iran has attacked Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia … and Qatar. An Israeli military official said U.S. and Israeli attacks will continue “for a long time.”

(Tuesday: Italy’s measured approach to the war against an old ally.)