Minutes before an Iranian drone smashed into a fuel tank, sending a fiery explosion into the skies above Dubai International Airport, the wheels of an Emirates passenger plane en route to Beijing had just lifted from the runway.
The blast in the early hours of Monday morning forced two planes on approach to quickly divert and take up holding patterns. Twelve other flights had taken off in the 30 minutes before the attack. By midday, the airport was back up and running.
The incident is among the starkest examples of the dangers facing commercial airlines in the Middle East. Airlines have reinstated hundreds of flights a day even as drones and missiles have struck across the region.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 21, 2026 22:40 ET (02:40 GMT)
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