As Israeli warplanes rained down missiles on Iran at the start of a surprise military offensive earlier this month, flight attendants and pilots for Emirates and Qatar Airways suddenly found themselves caught up in a terrifying ordeal, stranded in Iran and Iraq as the airspace was suddenly closed with no warning.
What followed was an audacious plan to smuggle dozens of crew members out of a warzone over hundreds of miles by road, sheltering in the back of buses as drivers got them across borders into neighboring countries.
Both carriers were still operating flights to Iran and Iraq in the early hours of June 13 when Israel launched ‘Operation Rising Lion,’ with warplanes targeting sites across Iran and provoking a response in the form of ballistic missiles which flew over Iraq towards Israel.
Emirates flight EK977 landed in the Iranian capital Tehran at around 3:44 am on June 13 just as the Israeli offensive was getting underway. The airspace across Iran was quickly shut down, and it quickly dawned on the crew that they couldn’t get home.
The Boeing 777-300, worth $375 million at list price, has been unable to depart Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport and remains stranded in Iran 11 days later.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways flight QR454 from Doha to Erbil, Iraq, also landed in the early hours of June 13. The Airbus A320 is still stuck in Iraq, although the crew has been safely repatriated to Qatar.
As the security situation quickly deteriorated in the region, Emirates and Qatar Airways had to move quickly to get their crew out of an active warzone.
With no commercial flights allowed in or out of Iran, the airlines had to rely on moving their staff hundreds of miles via road, smuggled in the back of buses to get them safely across the Iranian border, from where special repatriation flights were awaiting.
The Emirates crew were sent northwest to Azerbaijan, where they were eventually driven to Baku and then flown back to Dubai, while the Qatar Airways crew are believed to have driven across the Iraqi border into Turkey.
A special flight from Baku to Dubai took off on June 19, six days after what should have been a simple ‘turnaround’ flight quickly developed into a living nightmare.
Emirates did not respond to multiple requests for comment on what it was doing to look after the welfare of the crew who were caught up in this horrendous experience.
However, in a statement released on Tuesday, the airline said: “Despite rapidly evolving regional developments, it’s been business as usual across the Emirates network.”
“In the past two weeks, Emirates has maintained scheduled services by rerouting flights to avoid conflict zones, successfully serving over 1.7 million passengers on more than 5,800 flights across its global network and delivering certainty to their travel plans when they needed it the most, while upholding its commitment to safe, reliable travel.”
Addressing concerns about passenger and crew safety, the airline added:
“The safety of Emirates’ passengers and crew is its absolute priority, and the airline would never fly if it was not safe to do so.”
“Emirates continuously monitors developments, coordinates with aviation authorities, and assesses every potential risk to ensure all flights are safely rerouted away from conflict zones, all the while meeting the most stringent regulatory requirements.”
Matt’s take
There’s no denying that this must have been a really distressing experience for all of the pilots and cabin crew caught up in this situation.
Persian Gulf carriers typically hire cabin crew from Europe, the United States, and Asia, although they don’t really advertise the fact that they fly to countries with very different security situations from what they might be used to at home.
Of course, these flights were meant to be ‘turnarounds’ – meaning that the plane would land and the same crew would fly back to Dubai or Doha just an hour or so later.
The crew wouldn’t have had any spare clothing or toiletries with them, and it must have been a really stressful experience for their friends and family, worrying whether their loved ones would get out safely.
A pat on the back to the airlines who took care of their crew members. They are not involved in the politics of these issues. Thankfully, everybody was taken out of the area.