Son’s ‘instant relief’ as mother takes off from Lebanon after late-night escape

A son has described his “instant relief” watching his mother’s flight back to the UK take off from Lebanon after a late-night escape filled with the sound of explosions.

Philip, 28, a British citizen who did not wish to share his or his mother’s surnames, said his Lebanese mother Rita, 55, heard bombing during her taxi ride through a southern suburb of Beirut in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Philip told the PA news agency he woke up at 2am and spoke with his mother for two hours as she took the hour-long trip to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport for a commercial flight back to London Heathrow.

He said she had to travel through a “dangerous” part of the country for about 20 minutes and Philip heard his mother “panicking” at the sounds of bombing in the distance.

“I heard her say, ‘oh my God, I’ve heard something’ and the taxi driver saying, ‘stay calm’ – so that was worrying, but it became clear that it was relatively at a distance,” he said.

“In my mind for the last five days, I was like ‘we just need to be lucky, we just need a 20 minute window for us to be lucky and for her to get out’.

“I appreciate many civilians are not lucky to have flights but this is my mum and I need her out of there.

“I was kind of relieved when she entered the airport building, because it was my hope that that was sort of an off-limit place where there’d be some international co-ordination not to bomb the airport.”

Philip tracked his mother’s Middle East Airlines flight using a tracking website. He later confirmed that the flight arrived at Heathrow at 11.15am on Wednesday.

Reflecting on the moment he watched his mother’s flight begin to ascend, he said: “I felt instant relief.”

Rita had arrived in Ajaltoun, Keserwan, north of Beirut, in August to visit her uncle who has cancer and had pre-booked a flight to leave the country on Wednesday.

“We’re very, very lucky in that we had that flight booked,” Philip said, but added that he was concerned Iran’s attack on Israel on Tuesday would cause the flight to be cancelled.

“We were so worried about the Iranian missile attack yesterday – first, I thought the flight would be cancelled because they stopped planes taking off and landing from Beirut for two hours last night.

“Then they said they were going to reopen the airspace so I was relieved and then I was like, okay, now we just need to get lucky for her to get to the airport. Honestly, it’s been a journey.”

Rita arrived in the UK in 2021 on a spouse visa after spending time in Lebanon taking care of her sick father, following her husband’s arrival in 2014 and her son’s in 2013.

Usually living in Surbiton, in Kingston upon Thames, she has a biometric residence permit but as she is not a British citizen she is not eligible for the UK Government’s evacuation plan – but Philip had “luckily” managed to book a commercial flight for her months ago.

Philip said his uncle – an American citizen – is still in Lebanon with his wife and two cousins, but they live in a “relatively safe” village north of Beirut and have not yet decided whether to leave the country or not.

“He’s not as panicked as we were probably, but that’s also a function of the entire family being there, versus, in my case, it was just a single woman on her own right in a war zone,” Philip said.

“That’s what worried me the most – if we were there with her, at least we’re just in it together but because she was there alone, we were very worried.”

Philip said he is going to give his mother a “massive” hug and catch up with her once they are reunited.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has said: “FCDO continues to advise against all travel to Lebanon.

“If you are currently in Lebanon, we encourage you to leave, while commercial options remain available.”