Holidaymakers escape flood-hit Dubai – only to find out their luggage was left behind
Passengers who escaped flooding in Dubai found out their luggage was left behind.
Passengers escaped flood chaos in Dubai with flights arriving at Heathrow Airport – where they were told their luggage never made it onto the plane.
Exhausted travellers landed at the airport on Wednesday after fleeing flood-hit Dubai.
After their flight was delayed by two hours, passengers then waited around at the baggage reclaim.
It took 90 minutes before they were told Emirates Airlines had not loaded their luggage onto the UK-bound flight, MailOnline reports.
One of the passengers on the Airbus A380 was property developer Ciaran Russell, 29.
He told the outlet at the airport: ‘I’m absolutely seething. They told us twice that our bags were being unloaded from the plane. Then they admitted they never made it onto the plane.
‘I have 4hrs to get to Stansted to get another flight to Bangkok for business. I have no clothes with me now.’
It comes after unprecedented thunderstorms battered the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, leaving families scrambling to escape the city amid flooded roads.
Footage showed passengers sleeping on the floor at Dubai International Airport.
Dozens of flights were grounded at the airport after more than 4.7 inches of rain fell.
It is the highest amount of rainfall in the UAE in the past 75 years.
Tim McBride and his family arrived at Heathrow from Australia only wearing Crocs.
He told the outlet after landing: ‘We are relieved that we got on the plane.
‘But we have no clothes. They haven’t told us when we will get our bags.’
Inoka Herath returned from visiting family in Sri Lanka, but she was affected by the chaos on her return to London.
She said: ‘They told us to stand beside the baggage machine number 6. They said the bags were coming. I waited two hours to fill out a form. They said we might get our bags tonight or maybe tomorrow. People are very angry.’
A woman, who did not want to be named, told MailOnline her medication was in her luggage.
She said it was ‘chaos’ in Dubai, adding that people are ‘very angry.’
Sam Spears, 48, from Essex, was on holiday with husband Jamie, 48, and their sons Harrison, 9, and Freddy, 6.
She told MailOnline: ‘Our bags are still in Dubai. Emirates told us that they couldn’t get to the ground crews to the airport because of the floods and so they couldn’t get all their flights away properly.’
They got ‘completely soaked’ in Dubai.
She said: ‘We took the boys to an indoor play area, but there was so much rain that the roof gave way and let all the water in.
‘We had to wade through deep puddles to get to a hotel to order a taxi. It was chaos. Harrison got a bit scared.’
Another passenger said: ‘They could have told us at anytime. They knew the bags never made it on the flight. They didn’t want it all to kick off, I guess.’
Metro.co.uk contacted Emirates Airlines for a comment.
Other passengers also told how they were surrounded by floodwater in Dubai.
Businessman Rob Swallow and his wife Bel, from Sevenoaks, Kent, were flooded twice while visiting their son who lives in the UAE.
He told MailOnline how the family fled to a hotel from his son’s home after it got swamped, but soon ‘the hotel got flooded too.’
They managed to get through the ‘waist-deep’ water in their son’s Landrover Defender thanks to its ‘wade’ mode, but the usual 35-minute journey to the airport took almost two hours, he told the outlet.
Helicopter business owner Simon Rowland, from Chelmsford, Essex, told the outlet how his family’s hotel room was engulfed by rainwater after a thunderstorm.
He said: ‘It was pretty bad. We previously lived in the UAE for five years and I’ve never seen anything like it.
‘We had five nights in the Atlantis Palm hotel, but the room got inundated by rainwater. My son Harrison got woken up by their fierce thunderstorm and got a bit frightened.
‘It was dangerous too, because the locals did not know how to drive through the floods. They would come to a stop and then not be able to get going again.
‘There were abandoned cars all over the place – Rolls Royce, Ferraris, all kinds of expensive models.’
Frustrated passengers told of the chaos in Dubai as travellers reported being left in the dark amid a lack of communication.
Solicitor Paul Lidwith , 40, from St Helens, Merseyside, claimed he was stranded for seven hours ‘without a single update.’
His journey with Emirates from New Zealand to Manchester via Sydney and Dubai International Airport was diverted to Al Maktoum International Airport (Dubai World Central) an hour away.
He told PA: ‘This airport is for cargo planes and it deals with about maybe half a dozen flights a day.
‘They couldn’t handle the flights that were diverted from Dubai International.
‘We had to wait on the tarmac for nearly five hours.
‘It took our total journey time from leaving Sydney to getting off the plane here to 22 hours.
‘It’s just been an absolute disaster.
‘We’re stuck here and seven hours without a single update is inexcusable.’
Emirates said yesterday it had suspended check-in for passengers departing from Dubai from 8am on Wednesday for the rest of the day ‘due to operation challenges caused by bad weather and road conditions.’
It said in a statement: ‘Passengers arriving in Dubai and already in transit will continue to be processed for their flights.
‘Customers can expect delays to departures and arrivals, and are advised to check the latest flight schedules on emirates.com.
‘We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. Emirates is working hard to restore our scheduled operations, and our teams will provide all possible support to affected customers.’
Yvonne Newbery, 71, from Queensland, Australia, told MailOnline some people ‘couldn’t get on the plane and were sent to a hotel.’
The tourist continued: ‘It’s not Emirates’ fault because the weather is out of their hands. I had no concerns because the airline knows what they are doing.
‘I was delayed for about five hours and now I will enjoy my holiday.’
Dubai resident Kamal El Sherif, 22, who lives in the city and had arrived in London for a vacation, told MailOnline: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. It was a mess.
‘My grandma was stuck in a car in the floods for five hours before she was rescued. She is okay now.
‘They said it was the worst storms in Dubai for 40 years. It was really dark when it should have been bright.’
Sebastian Bartlett, who was travelling from Vietnam via Dubai, told the outlet some people were ‘passing out’ amid the wait at the airport.
‘A few [passengers] have passed out in the queue and has taken medics over 10/15mins to respond, other passengers have had to resort to fanning the fainted,’ he said.
Dubai International Airport, the world’s second busiest airport, issued a statement on Wednesday, advising passengers to not ‘come to the airport, unless absolutely necessary.’
It warned: ‘Flights continue to be delayed and diverted. Please check your flight status directly with your airline.
‘We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions.’
The storm also hit Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, where emergency authorities told Oman News Agency that nine schoolchildren and three adults died after flash floods on Sunday.
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