SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A San Diego man and his girlfriend made a harrowing escape from Dubai this weekend after being stranded there for days after Iranian drone attacks filled the airport with smoke and missile alerts rattled the city.
Chad Cummins and his girlfriend had been traveling the world since November. They arrived in Dubai for a stopover just hours before the war started. Drone attacks soon filled the airport with smoke, and in the next few days, two nearby hotels caught fire in what appeared to be Iranian strikes.
Cummins captured a photo from their 44th-floor hotel room that appeared to show smoke rising from one of the two hotel fires.
The U.S. State Department offered Cummins a seat on a charter flight out of Dubai, but there was no seat available for his girlfriend, a Colombian citizen. He declined.
Cummins booked 3 pairs of tickets online for flights out of Dubai, but each time, the flights were canceled. On his 4th booking, he secured tickets for Saturday. That morning, the couple received an emergency alert warning of possible missile attacks.
"We're thinking, you've got to be kidding," Cummins said.
On the taxi ride to the airport, police turned them away near the terminal without explanation. Their driver found a way through.
"Our taxi driver, who was a veteran of the airport run, got on some back streets and dropped us off pretty close, and we were able to get in," Cummins said.
Inside the airport, they learned a drone strike had hit near the terminals just an hour before their arrival.
I asked Cummins whether he thought the flight would take off.
“We knew it wasn’t a certainty. We were mentally preparing for that. Just closed my eyes and tried to relax,” Cummins said. ”With all the missile alerts, it was almost like ‘Russian missile roulette’ at that point. And we thought that, well, you know, it's in God's hands.”
The flight was delayed 5 hours. Even after boarding the plane, Cummins wasn't sure they would leave.
"Here we are on the plane. I'll believe it when we take off," Cummins said in a video.
They did take off shortly after boarding. On Sunday, the couple landed in Colombia.
"I'm exhausted mentally and physically, but at the same time, you almost feel sort of euphoric because you know that ordeal is behind you, and you made it out," Cummins said.
Speaking from a hotel room in Bogotá, Colombia, two days after the escape, Cummins reflected on the experience.
"Quite thankful I got out," Cummins said. “I know there are many still stranded… I’ve never wanted to set foot in the good old USA more than I want to right now.”
Cummins has a flight to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and is due back in San Diego within a week.
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