First plane packed with relieved Brits lands at Heathrow after scramble for flights out of UAE

The first flight to arrive from the UAE since the onset of the Iran war landed at 7.16pm, packed with relieved Brits.

It is estimated that 300,000 Brits are currently in the Middle East as the region faces chaos following the killing of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.

The flight from Abu Dhabi carrying stranded UK nationals landed at London’s Heathrow airport on Monday evening.

Etihad Airways flight EY067 arrived at Terminal 4 of the west London airport, after a delayed departure from the UAE’s capital.

It was one of 15 Etihad Airways flights to depart from Abu Dhabi in a three-hour window, which flight tracking company Flightradar24 said were “likely helping to clear transit passengers who have been stuck there since the start of the conflict”.

A British woman who was stuck in Abu Dhabi over the weekend said she was “unbelievably relieved” to land back in London, as she hugged her partner Adam Smith, 41, who waited for her and their son at Heathrow’s Terminal 4 arrivals.

Fay McCaul, also 41, said: “It was a lot.

“I just hope the people who are stuck there get some help.”

She added: “The lack of information was probably quite, like, the hardest bit.

“But then to be fair they (Etihad Airways) didn’t know what was happening either.”

Speaking of her seven-year-old son, she said: “I mean, he had a lovely time because he had no idea of what was going on. And luckily our hotel had a pool and stuff, and he didn’t, he didn’t really understand what was happening. It was pretty stressful for me but yeah, luckily, he’s quite chilled.”