{"id":317646,"date":"2026-03-07T12:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/317646\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:41:19","slug":"applause-at-auckland-airport-as-first-flight-arrives-from-dubai-since-war-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/317646\/","title":{"rendered":"Applause at Auckland Airport as first flight arrives from Dubai since war began"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michelle Frankham and her husband, Mark Frankham, were some of the first at Auckland Airport on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"MichelleMichelle Frankham hugs her friend Yvonne. Photo \/ Pretoria Gordon, RNZ<\/p>\n

The couple were waiting for Michelle Frankham\u2019s friend Yvonne, along with Yvonne\u2019s husband and two children.<\/p>\n

The family were returning to New Zealand after living in Dubai<\/a> for a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to welcome them home<\/a>, because I know that they spent their last night curled up in their bathroom with two young teenage girls, so we\u2019re here with a car full of groceries and some gift baskets to make them feel better,\u201d Michelle Frankham told RNZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just relieved that they\u2019re coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GrandmaGrandma Claire Eadie (left) welcomed relatives on the flight arriving in Auckland from Dubai with hugs. Photo \/Pretoria Gordon, RNZ<\/p>\n

Claire Eadie was waiting for her daughter-in-law Rebecca Fleming and her three grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Eadie\u2019s son remained in Dubai but had told Eadie her grandchildren were upset by the alerts that warned of incoming missiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they are so stressed, I think it\u2019s been a really hard week for them,\u201d Eadie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re very sad at leaving their dad behind, but they must feel a huge sense of relief to have left.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a grandmother and mother-in-law, Eadie was overjoyed to have her family back in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t ever imagine your children in a war zone.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019m] heartbroken that my son isn\u2019t here too, but very relieved that my daughter-in-law and grandchildren will be safe now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eadie said the rest of the day would be spent in \u201cpeace and quiet\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fleming said all three of her children were born in the Middle East and it was bittersweet to have left her home \u2013 and her husband.<\/p>\n

The flight was originally scheduled for Sunday, Fleming said, so she only had half an hour to pack before heading to the airport.<\/p>\n

She estimated there were 30 to 40 people on the flight.<\/p>\n

David Ramsay was waiting for his wife, Leonie Ramsay, who had been in Dubai since February 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to go up last week, but as I was about to leave, they closed the airspace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While they had spoken \u201cseveral times a day\u201d since then, both burst into tears upon being reunited.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally good to be home,\u201d Leonie Ramsay said. \u201cReally good to have her home,\u201d David Ramsay added.<\/p>\n

Louise Kyle, who came from Scotland, also burst into tears when she was reunited with her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so lovely to be home, it\u2019s so lovely to call New Zealand home, lovely to be on the other side of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had been stuck in Dubai for three days, listening to a \u201cmissile threat\u201d alert from Civil Defence every hour or so.<\/p>\n

\"MargaretMargaret Grogan reuniting with her husband. Photo \/ Pretoria Gordon, RNZ<\/p>\n

Margaret Grogan was also relieved to have made it back<\/a> to her \u201csecond home\u201d. She was en route from South Africa when she got stuck in the Middle East because of the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love New Zealand. I\u2019m from Ireland and this is … my second home. I absolutely love it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they asked me: \u2018Where are you from?\u2019 I said New Zealand. [They said]: \u2018Isn\u2019t that the safest place in the world to be in right now?\u2019 And I said absolutely … very, very safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most of the passengers on the flight were returning home, one tourist had come to visit New Zealand for the first time.<\/p>\n

Richard Parnicky, who is an expatriate living in Dubai, was planning to meet up with friends in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very peaceful flight. It was basically empty… I was looking forward to going to New Zealand for quite some time and here I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelle Frankham and her husband, Mark Frankham, were some of the first at Auckland Airport on Saturday. Michelle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2681,172067,28823,806,1975,51,11164,4225,1888,70,71,40370,111,43,139,69,26809,7811,6149],"class_list":["post-317646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-airport","tag-applause","tag-arrives","tag-as","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-began","tag-dubai","tag-first","tag-flight","tag-from","tag-gordon","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pretoria","tag-since","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}