Shrapnel from an intercepted missile fell near Deanna Yusra Rashid’s home in Jordan, a moment that underscored just how close the conflict had come.
“We heard the sirens more than five times a day and saw missiles almost every day,” said the 20-year-old Singaporean, who studies Arabic language and literature at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan.
“At night, it gets even scarier, because you do not know when or where it is going to land.”
She said the debris from intercepted missiles falling near where she lived left her worried that more could drop from the sky.
Deanna had planned to fly home on a Qatar Airways commercial flight on Thursday.
But she cancelled that ticket in favour of a Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) repatriation flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as she was unsure when the airspace would reopen.
It was “very heartwarming” to hear the pilot announce “welcome home” when the plane landed at Changi Airport, she said.
The repatriation flight – RSAF’s second since the US-Israel attack on Iran broke out – arrived in Singapore yesterday at 5.59am.
Eighty-one Singaporeans and their dependants returned on board the RSAF A330 multi-role tanker transport aircraft deployed to bring citizens home, as some locations were not accessible by commercial flights.
Minister of State for Defence Desmond Choo, who was at the airport, said Singapore would act whenever its citizens needed help.
“It is important that, and with a huge sense of relief and encouragement, all our Singaporeans come back home safely.” — The Straits Times/ANN
