Last Friday, Shekinah Lee and eight of her friends rang in her boyfriend’s 27th birthday in Dubai, somewhere he’d always wanted to visit. Two days later, they watched as a missile shot across the sky, wondering when and how they’d get home.
What began as a “dream” five-day trip for the group of Chicagoans now has no end in sight, as air strikes from Iran led to canceled flights out of the United Arab Emirates over the weekend.
Lee, 26, said Emirates airline canceled the group’s return flight to O’Hare Airport on Sunday after airspace was closed when Iran launched retaliatory strikes in cities across the Middle East, including Dubai.
She said they’ve heard explosions and jets flying since Sunday at noon. Later in the day, the group was sightseeing in the city when they saw a missile passing overhead.
“It’s completely terrifying,” Lee said. “Most of the time, you’re just hearing what’s happening. You’re looking up at the sky, and the sky looks perfectly fine. So you don’t know if something is coming towards you. You don’t know where something has hit.”
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated under the Trump administration. In June, the U.S. bombed nuclear facilities in Iran, and President Donald Trump has remained vocal about oversight of Iran’s nuclear programs. He also threatened military action earlier this year over the Iranian government’s lethal protest crackdowns, which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned would trigger a regional war, according to the Associated Press.
On Saturday, the U.S. and Israel bombed multiple cities across Iran, and Khamenei was killed in the strikes. A girls’ school was also hit in the bombings, and over 100 people were killed, reported Iranian state media. Iran launched retaliatory strikes, hitting places in the United Arab Emirates, among others.
The United Arab Emirates government said air defense systems had intercepted two cruise missiles, 165 ballistic missiles and more than 540 drones over two days of Iran’s retaliatory attacks, the Associated Press reported Sunday. Debris from the weapon interceptions started fires and damaged structures in Dubai. The falling pieces harmed the Dubai International Airport and started fires outside famous hotels and skyscrapers.
Emirates hasn’t rebooked the flight, Lee said, adding that she hasn’t heard from the airline because it doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with the influx of calls. Several international airlines cautiously resumed a small number of flights from the United Arab Emirates on Monday. For days, there have been near-total shutdowns at some of the world’s busiest aviation hubs as disruptions ripple far beyond the conflict zone.
Emirates, alongside fellow long-haul carrier Etihad Airways and budget carrier FlyDubai, said they would operate select flights from the country. Still, more than 90% of the scheduled flights into and out of Dubai International remained canceled Monday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.
Since Saturday, there’s been more than 32,000 flights scheduled to arrive or depart from across the Middle East — with 12,903, or just over 40%, of those canceled, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm.
Emirates said customers with earlier bookings would get priority for seats aboard the limited flights it planned to operate starting Monday evening.
Lee said she also reached out to the U.S. embassy, which referred her to a notice on its website telling those in the area to shelter in place.
After their flight was canceled, Lee and her friends strategized their next steps in the hotel’s lobby. It was then that everyone’s phones dinged with an emergency alert, Lee said, telling them to shelter indoors and stay away from windows and glass.
“At that point, I realized it was serious,” Lee said. “And better safe than sorry.”
Lee said she went to the reception desk to ask where would be safest to go, and hotel staff directed her to a parking garage. She, her boyfriend and almost everyone else at the hotel spent the night sleeping on chairs underground, Lee said.
The group extended their hotel room reservations for another week, Lee said, as it’s still uncertain when they’ll be able to head home. Lee said the group is sheltering in their hotel and trying to create a routine to keep calm.
If she has to stay much longer than originally intended, Lee said she worries about finances. The city has increasingly been seen as a peaceful, luxury destination by U.S. travelers in recent years. Lee said she visited Dubai’s Miracle Garden, Global Village and red sand deserts, which draw tourism from across the globe. The Dubai International Airport saw a 5% increase in traffic last year and served a record-high 95.2 million passengers, according to the Associated Press.
Lee, a model and content creator from the South Side, has been documenting her experience over the last few days on TikTok. One of her videos has reached 2.8 million views.
Some comments online have been harsh, she said. She’s seen people saying they don’t feel sorry for the group and think the friends shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.
“We are all very smart, and we all keep up on current events and still couldn’t have anticipated that a war was coming when we would be in between those countries,” Lee said.
Since Sunday, conditions in Dubai have calmed, Lee said. She sees locals going to work and riding bikes. They tell her that although the situation is unusual, it isn’t a reason to fear for her safety, Lee said.
But Lee said she and her friends are still desperate to get home to Chicago.
“Some people consider Chicago a war zone, but it’s nothing compared to missiles and bombs flying out of the sky,” Lee said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
