Canonsburg woman able to get back home after trip to Dubai
Anyone who travels internationally for work has plenty of tales to tell about snafus and frustrations that come with canceled flights, miscommunication and a myriad of other headaches that accompany trekking over oceans or crossing international borders.
Artisha Walker has her own tale to tell, and it has plenty of chaos and no small amount of nail biting.
The Canonsburg woman and digital marketing consultant was in Dubai, the glittering city in the United Arab Emirates that is home to the world’s tallest building, for a business-related event when the United States and Israel attacked Iran, and Iran retaliated by firing missiles at the UAE and some of its other Middle Eastern neighbors. What was supposed to be a relatively quick trip for Walker turned into a more extended sojourn.
“My flight was canceled five times,” Walker said in an interview this week. “It took a lot of effort to get a flight out. Trying to get out with what was going on was super difficult.”
The UAE is separated from the southern coast of Iran by a very narrow passage of the Persian Gulf. At its narrowest point, the distance between Iran and the UAE is about the same as the distance between Waynesburg and Morgantown, W.Va. The U.S. consulate in Dubai was hit in a drone attack when hostilities first broke out Feb. 28, and a five-star resort was set ablaze. Walker was at a dinner with other people attending the event when they heard explosions from missiles that landed nearby.
Was Walker scared?
“I’m very calm and level-headed,” she explained. “People in Dubai were very calm about the situation.”
Walker noted that life pretty much proceeded as normal in Dubai after the attacks – most people were staying inside during the day because of Ramadan, the Muslim month of prayer and fasting, but then going out at night. The primary obstacle Walker faced was leaving. The State Department was urging U.S. citizens to get out of the UAE, but Walker pointed out that they were being given few options to actually do that.
“The biggest concern was you’re being told to leave, but not being able to,” Walker said, adding that the State Department was “very vague and not very helpful. We were told to leave immediately, but we received no support for doing that.”
First, one flight was canceled. Then another. Then another. All told, five flights were scrubbed before Walker was able to depart. She was finally able to arrange a flight to London after she had already arrived at the airport for a flight to Dublin that had been canceled, but needed to quickly get an electronic travel authorization that is required of all U.S. citizens entering Britain, even if they are just changing flights.
Once she got to London’s Heathrow Airport, she was able to get on a flight to Chicago and to Pittsburgh from there.
Despite what she endured, Walker said she had no qualms about possibly returning to Dubai at some point when the conflict is at an end.
“I actually would go back,” she said.