Word: dubai
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Iraqi city of Basra, near the head of the Persian Gulf. The terrorists might well have received a warm reception at the hands of the Israeli-hating Iraqis, but Basra's airport was too small to allow the jumbo jet to land. Finally, the plane landed at Dubai, one of seven tiny states that make up the United Arab Emirates, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Dubai's airport, a handsome, recently built concoction of glass and concrete, is the newest and largest in the area...
Airport officials worried that the small auxiliary generator hooked up to the plane might not be powerful enough to run its air-conditioning system properly-and temperatures under Dubai's hot sun rose as high as 102° during the first day of captivity. Said a police officer: "They must really be cooking out there now." Another problem was sanitation: when Palestinians in September 1970 forced three foreign jets to land in the Jordanian desert (and eventually blew them up), a major complaint by the hostages was the overflowing toilets on board...
...waken one of them to give him the approach briefing." Another pilot dozed off while awaiting clearance to take off on a London to Frankfort flight. In one instance, an exhausted flight crew missed an airport altogether. It landed at Sharjah on the Persian Gulf rather than at Dubai, which is six miles away...
...Arab Emirates (see map), which is somewhat less of a nation than a collection of traditionally suspicious and unequal tribes. Linked only by language (Arabic) and faith (Islam), the six founding members differ vastly in size and population as well as in wealth. Abu Dhabi (pop. 100,000) and Dubai (70,000), for instance, sit on top of enormous pooh of oil; nearby Fujeira (10,000) and Umm al Qaiwain (4,500) have none. Dubai, moreover, has the states' principal port; from there, smugglers have long done a lucrative business in carrying gold, perfumes and Swiss watches to India...
...Airports. The fledgling Union now would like nothing better than to be left alone to solve its internal problems-housing is scarce and education limited-and to enjoy the benefits of its oil money. Fujeira and Umm al Qaiwain are little more than fishing villages surrounded by desert, but Dubai and Abu Dhabi (each of whose capitals has the same name as the sheikdom) have lavish international airports...