At 3:07am in Dubai, on a sleepless night, I was refreshing airline websites one tab after another.
Flights were disappearing in seconds. Every time tickets appeared, they were gone almost immediately.
Hundreds of thousands of people were trying to leave the region after the war started. My family was one of them.
We ended up stuck in Dubai for 6 extra days before finally getting home to Latvia.
After something like this, you reflect. A few lessons stood out.
1. Contacts work. Relationships matter.
When the crisis started, normal systems stopped working. Airlines were overwhelmed. Phone lines were useless. It could take hours just to reach someone.
But if you had someone’s direct number or WhatsApp, you could often get a response faster.
A few aviation contacts and fellow Latvians in a local WhatsApp group helped us get information while regular channels were slow. Ultimately we got out as a young family with small children, though it took a lot of time for information to circulate.
Build relationships and don’t be afraid to ask for help when a crisis hits.
2. Liquidity equals optionality.
We were refreshing airline websites day & night. 3 different flights to EU for us got cancelled. 1 was cancelled at the last minute while we were already at the gate. Crushing feeling.
To get 5 people out, we had to book multiple tickets across different flights, often simultaneously. That meant a lot of money tied up in tickets.
I was glad to have multiple bank accounts, credit cards and enough cash to move fast. Without that we would have had to wait much longer for flights.
In a crisis, money buys options. Build that safety net.
3. Extreme prioritization.
I’ve spent 20 years obsessing over productivity systems. This was the moment where that muscle mattered.
Everything non-essential had to be postponed. The only priorities were:
- securing evacuation flights
- moving to a safer hotel (lower floor)
- alternative exit routes
At one point, we even secured visitor visas for our family to the UK and Australia, because those were the only flights available. Not ideal. But they gave us options.
I was lucky to go through this with my partner Elīna Siksnāne, who is incredibly resourceful. We could split tasks and move quickly.
4. Crisis preparedness must improve
6 days after the war started, we boarded the AirBaltic repatriation flight organized by the Latvian government. I’m grateful that it happened. But there are lessons.
It has been 5 years since COVID and 4 years since the Ukraine war. Crisis preparedness should already be stronger.
There were about 600 Latvian citizens stuck. What happens when 10k citizens are stuck somewhere during the next crisis? How fast will we respond then?
Every crisis should improve the next response.
We’re safe and happy to be home, now decompressing and getting back to work.
It’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on anybody, but think about how prepared you would be if you found yourself in one.