Steve Long was arrested in the UAE because he was afraid.
On January 28th, the 39-year-old from Stockport, Manchester told airport staff in Abu Dhabi, before he was to board a flight home, that...
On January 28th, the 39-year-old from Stockport, Manchester told airport staff in Abu Dhabi, before he was to board a flight home, that he feared there would be a bomb on the plane. He wasn’t making a bad joke; he was in the grips of residual trauma resulting from years of work as a paramedic involved with bomb disposal units in the military and civilian sector; which caused an apparent episode of heightened fear and paranoia, especially because of the drone attacks that were targeting airports in Abu Dhabi.
“Airport staff could have taken Steve aside and simply talked to him to allay his fears,” Radha Stirling, CEO and founder of Detained in Dubai said, “Instead, after Etihad made a criminal complaint, he was arrested and faces a prison sentence. Airline security makes no distinction between threats and passenger concerns about threats; they are treating Steve as though he intended to cause a disruption, when in reality, he was just scared.”