Dubai Recounts Ordeal After Houthi Strike at Riyadh Airport

Published on Sat 17 Oct 2026, 5:59 AM.

Dubai resident Sunaira Sohail described feeling that the world was ending after a Houthi missile struck Riyadh airport while she was queuing to update her boarding pass for a flight to Bangkok.

“I felt like the world was ending. I genuinely thought there was no way back,” Sunaira Sohail, a Dubai-based public relations executive, told Khaleej Times in an interview after her return from Saudi Arabia.

Attack and Immediate Chaos

She was at the airport counter when the blast occurred right next to the group; the impact pushed them to the left and smoke filled the area to the right. Alarms sounded but there were initially no staff to guide passengers. People screamed and cried, officials ordered everyone to move to the arrivals area, and transit passengers without entry stamps worried they would be unable to re‑enter the airport but were told not to worry.

“It (the blast) literally happened right next to us. The impact was so huge that we were pushed to the left. When we looked to the right, the entire place was filled with smoke,” she said.

“People were screaming and crying. Officials ordered everyone to move to the arrivals area. Transit passengers without entry stamps were worried they would be unable to re-enter the airport, but they were told not to worry.”

She added that phone networks and airport Wi‑Fi went down, preventing her from contacting her family in Dubai.

Hours of Delay and Stranding

More than 4,000 flights across Saudi airports were cancelled after Houthi attacks intensified on 8 October, causing deaths and injuries; Riyadh airport remained closed by Saudi authorities until 17 October.

Before departure, Sunaira called the airline to ask whether regional tensions would affect her flight; she was told everything was on schedule, but she had an intuitive feeling that something was not right and spent the time reading the Quran because she was scared.

“But I had this intuitive feeling that something was not right. I was reading Quran the entire time because I was really scared.”

She landed at Riyadh at 1:30 am, with her onward Bangkok flight scheduled for 2:30 am; the flight was repeatedly delayed, first to 5:30 am then to 7:30 am.

Passengers were boarded at 10:30 am and remained inside the aircraft for over two hours before being asked to disembark and return to the terminal.

By that point they had been at the airport for about 26 hours, which she likened to the movie The Terminal.

“Like in the movie The Terminal, we were stuck there for 26 hours.”

She said passengers went without accommodation, food or water for hours while the Saudi airline refused to provide assistance.

She said passengers were later told that accommodation was available only to those holding a Saudi visa and would cost £140; many applied out of desperation, but she decided, as promised again, to wait for the 2:30 am flight to continue to Bangkok.

Sunaira and a few friends took a free shuttle meant to take stranded passengers to hotels; after about two hours travelling between fully booked hotels the driver dropped them near a metro station.

“They said, ‘Go find your own accommodation,’” she recalled.

The group found an Airbnb about 15 minutes from the airport after police told them the airport would reopen the next day, which did not happen.

Search for Solutions and Return Journey

With her luggage missing, Sunaira spent days seeking answers from officials; the airline said the bags were the airport’s responsibility, while the airport said they belonged to the airline’s responsibility.

She also struggled to obtain a document confirming that she had been evacuated.

Some of her friends travelled to Doha, Qatar, before taking connecting flights back to the United Kingdom and the United States.

Eventually, Sohail applied for an urgent visa and boarded a bus that left Riyadh at 4 p.m., reaching Abu Dhabi at 9 a.m. the following day.

Even while travelling back to the UAE, she said, passengers’ phones lit up with alerts about hostile threats.

“We got the alert and looked up, and right in front of our eyes, an interception happened. It’s something you only see in movies.”

More than five days later, Sunaira said she had still not received her luggage or any refunds.

“It was the complete opposite of what I had imagined for my first solo trip. But, thank God, I’m back in the UAE. And that’s the best part.”