'I was terrified that I was risking my baby's life trying to get out of Dubai'

A mother who was stuck in Dubai with her partner and their nine-month-old baby shared that their flights were cancelled four times before they could reach back home to the UK. Becca Gray, 40, and her family arrived in Dubai on February 26 and were scheduled to fly out to Hong Kong on March 5 to visit her brother, who lives there.

But just two days into their holiday, things took a turn for the worse when what was meant to be a relaxing day on the beach turned into panic after hearing “bangs” from the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, where the family were staying.

The 40-year-old revealed two bangs were heard from the beach on Saturday morning. The trio then moved to the hotel pool before hearing another five bangs in the afternoon, and seeing smoke in the sky.

That's when Ms Gray "grabbed the baby" and ran to the hotel's underground lobby. Shortly after, they returned to their hotel room to gather some emergency essentials, but by midnight emergency phone alerts warning about a “missile threat” were sent to phones, including Ms Gray’s, with the alerts urging people to “seek immediate shelter”.

After returning to the room and gathering some emergency essentials, she received the first emergency email at around midnight, warning people about a "missile threat" and urging them to "seek immediate shelter".

"[I] ran out, ran down the stairs, we went down into the basement of the hotel and we were there for a few hours, she told the Express.

“There were loads of people there, and I think it got too busy, there were too many people down, and the hotel staff started moving us across the road to a conference centre, which we stayed at all night."

Ms Gray said that there were "hundreds of people" in the large room.

The following morning, hotel staff, who Ms Gray said were "amazing," assured guests they could return to their rooms, but Ms Gray, "petrified" with her family, decided to relocate to a friend's house in the suburbs.

She explained the confusion and fear she was experiencing at the time, even as people across the city continued as usual.

"When we were at our friend's house, and we had our other friends in the centre were saying 'it's fine'. My friends that live in Dubai, in the city, were saying 'oh we're just carrying on like normal', so I think for us we were like 'we are at an amazing hotel, do we go back, are we risking our baby's life by going back?", she said.

"It was really really hard to know, we obviously didn't sleep that first night, then the second day. It's just the not knowing, what do you do?"

After spending two days at a friend’s house, the family of three went back in an attempt to resume their holiday as normal.

Until one evening, when out for dinner, they heard "a missile go past and get shot down", which prompted the mother to "quickly grab the buggy and run".

Still scheduled to fly to Hong Kong in two days, their hopes of escaping came crashing down when their Etihad flights cancelled on March 3.

"It just felt like it was getting worse," Ms Gray said.

According to the mother, as the days went on, fewer people remained in the hotel, and those who did were all British, she claims. The once “busy and lively” five-star hotel became “quiet”.

"A trolley would go past, and you'd think 'what was that?' every little noise you thought was a missile or something, an explosion, so you would just spend your time hiding or running back in to hide."

In an attempt to still find a way out of the city, her partner tried to book new Eithad flights, as well as Emirates ones, which both got cancelled.

"We were supposed to get an Etihad flight that was leaving around 4am, so we were in the hotel, we were all packed ready to go, we were just staying up waiting for the taxi, then it [the flight was] cancelled."

Etihad put the family on another flight departing from Abu Dhabi, and so the next morning, they got ready and travelled in a taxi to the airport.

Just as they were 30 minutes from the airport, they received an email informing them that their flight had been cancelled again. Ms Gray said she began "crying in the taxi".

Still determined to find a way out, they decided to continue their journey in the hope that something would work out, but it only seemed to get worse.

"As we are getting to the airport, literally five minutes away from the airport, the alerts start going off, and we're like 'we can't turn up to an airport with the missile attacks going on', she said.

"We're in the taxi now, the baby's screaming from the noise of the alerts, I'm crying my eyes out, the taxi driver is so confused, he thought that we were going to the airport, and we're trying to explain to him that we want to turn around.”

But to their surprise and despite being told their Etihad flight on March 6 was cancelled, FlightRadar shows that the flight landed in London at 6:56pm. The mother believes that the airline “was in it for the money” and may have overbooked people.

They were forced to go to a friend’s house again, escaping a hit that happened just a few hours later.

They then managed to get booked onto a “private” Emirates flight later that day, only made possible by a hotel employee who had spoken to Emirates staff who were present at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel on the family’s behalf. Ms Gray arrived back in the UK with her family on March 7.

The Express has reached out to Etihad regarding claims that passengers were overbooked on the Abu Dhabi-London flight departing at 1.50pm on March 6.