Americans stuck in the Middle East following the war are starting to make their way back home to North Texas.
On Friday morning, a flight from Dubai landed at DFW. Passengers told CBS Texas they were relieved to be back.
“I’m still kind of shaky, I guess, but I’m just blessed to be back,” said Asier Quiroga.
Honeymoon trip turns tense
“We started seeing some activity in the skies. We actually saw two intercepts,” said Arun Mamtani.
Arun and his wife, Monica Mamtani, have many stories to tell about their honeymoon to Dubai. Shortly after they arrived at their hotel, the conflict involving the U.S., Israel, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries began.
“It was very surreal because we were sitting in nice surroundings, listening to music, having good food, having drinks, overlooking the Burj Khalifa, and then we see these things. We still are not too worried because we don’t hear the sounds as much,” said Arun.
Panic sets in after alerts
The couple said panic kicked in when they received an alert on their phones Saturday night.
“After the alarm, I thought that we are going to die here. I mean, seriously, there is. There is no plan. What are we going to do?” said Monica.
The concern grew as the couple and others tried to figure out how to get back to North Texas.
“Tuesday or Wednesday is when we really started to worry that we would get stuck. We saw all the flights being canceled,” said Arun.
“We had our flight canceled about six times, I think. Maybe even more. And they were canceling all the, like, DFW flights,” said Quiroga.
A last‑minute escape route
They eventually secured seats on an Emirates flight that avoided much of the conflict by flying over southern Iran and then over the North Pole.
“Literally an hour, 20 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off, they told us, yeah, you’re good. And so we sprinted up to the 11th floor of our hotel room, and got all our bags together, like, as quick as we could get in the taxi,” said Quiroga.
The United Arab Emirates is one of 14 Middle Eastern countries U.S. citizens are being told to evacuate, but many planes remain grounded.