Liam shares the story of a business trip to Dubai that turned into a terrifying fight for safety after a drone was intercepted near the Palm and explosions started echoing through the city.

In this episode of Life by Misadventure, Liam talks about running from the Palm, hiding in a building site, leaving goodbye messages for his children, finding a way home, and trying to make sense of what happened afterwards.

His story is about fear, family, survival, friendship, and the moment you realise that the things you thought mattered most can change very quickly.

About the Show

Life by Misadventure is hosted by David Brown and features honest, engaging conversations with interesting people about life, loss, resilience, ideas, and the experiences that shape us.

Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/4dmbrown/

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And next thing I know, I just hear this noise in the sky. I'm like, what's that? So I'm looking up and I see what, you know, happened to be a very, very quick flash of.

I thought it was a meteorite coming out the sky and I hear this huge almighty explosion and I'm just like, what was that? So I'm literally stationary still, just watching what this is. And next thing I hear is screams and shouts and smoke.

And very quickly I put two and two together.

What's your most recent misadventure?

The day which comes to mind was one day I was pricing up a beautiful beauty salon down in Dubai Hills and that's where pretty much the rich and famous live. You know, you're talking minimum 3 million pound a villa there to up to 10 million pound villas. You know, this is the super rich.

And I was in there having coffee and we were just pricing some jobs up and I needed to go get some market research done in another part of Jumeirah. So I was there and had some tea, coffee. It's really quiet day and I haven't really been on my phone.

So the pick it up and there's obviously loads of messages. I'm reading these through and the lads chat. Of course, we've all got last chats, you know, coming through. Exactly.

And I was like, oh, this look a little bit worrying. I was like, you know, has that really happened? You know, it's gone into Sky News. I was like, you know, Trumpy's gone and bombed Iran.

I was just like, this is a fucking problem, this is a problem, right? So reading through the messages, they're like, you know, you need to get a flight out there. Like they're going to close the skies.

You know, this is real serious. And I was thinking, it's uae, I would be fine. So of course go online, there's still flights going and everything.

I thought, okay, how hard this can be.

So I finished my lunch, my latte finished, bit of work and then I go and to do my market research and then I get some more pings basically saying, well, they actually have started to. The airports are closed, the flights are stopping. I was like, oh, maybe this is getting a little bit serious.

So I thought, better give my mum a call before she finds out and reads something on the news that this is a problem. So I thought, everything's going to be calm, I'll be back out of Dubai in the next couple of weeks, no major issues.

And that night I was meeting a friend of mine for some Dinner. And before dinner I thought, I haven't been down the Palm in a long time. Actually, I've never properly walked down there.

So before dinner I thought, okay, well, I take a little taxi down there.

It was pretty chilled out and I think, you know, with the news coming out with what was going on, the roads were quiet because I noticeably, you know, saw less taxis. The journey time went from, from where I was staying 5, 10 minutes away to only a couple of minutes taxi journey down. Of course we can't walk.

The weather was fine, so we can walk down these places, but the reality is the roads are just too long, so you just, you just can't walk.

So I got the taxi to drop me off down the Palm is about 6, 30, maybe 7 o' clock and to come out and I'm starting to walk down to sort of like there sort of a promenade where you can walk all the way along.

Where was, what part of Dubai was this?

The Palm. Okay, so I was on the Palm Palm. And I was pretty much in between the Fairmont and the Hilton Hotel.

So I'm just walking between the two of those and I'm walking through and you know, just admiring. It's a buzzy place, people having dinner, drinks. I thought, right now I've got an hour before dinner, so just nice to have a wonder.

And also the weather's beautiful as well. And next thing I know, I just hear this noise in the sky. I'm like, what's that?

So I'm looking up and I see what, you know, happens to be a very, very quick flash of. I thought it was a meteorite, right, coming out the sky, what has dropped out. And it's sort of coming all the way down very, very quick.

And I'm maybe 30, 50 meters max away from the Fairmont Hotel and I hear this huge, mighty explosion and crash. Is it explosion, crash. And it was like thunder, like our thunder we have, but on an epic scale.

It wasn't even a smash, it was just a crash or something. And the ground vibrated everything around, don't forget, Dubai's built up, so everything echoes large around you. And I'm just like, what was that?

So I'm literally stationary still just watching what this is. And next thing I hear is screams and shouts and smoke.

And very quickly I put two and two together and I was like, that's what I can only assume is a bomb. The bombs, bombs being hit and the panic starts to. Everyone's up from the chairs, everyone starts to panic on a slower space scale.

And it Was hard to explain.

Everyone's up from the tables, walking, and then when more and more people start to panic, everyone else's panic levels go up and go up and go up until this thing was smoking, it was on fire. It was smoking. And the screaming. And at that point, the Palm starts to really exit. And I was like, is this really happening?

And the sky starts getting dark quickly over there. So within that sort of maybe 10 minutes, it's becoming dusk, and you start to see more missiles coming over.

And what the worst thing is, they're coming over, but they're being intercepted now, of course, day one, we don't know they're being intercepted. You don't know what's exploding. So we don't know. The UAE have a THUD system which protects their skies in a five layer, tier layer.

We don't know this. So all we know is there's bombs going off around us. And we know they're bombs because the sound of a bomb is horrendous.

Nobody should ever hear that sound. It goes through your body, it goes through the ground, and you don't know where they're coming over. So I exited the Palm up past a Hilton.

You run up past that, and the Hilton's emptied, other hotels emptied, and all the roads are. Cars are stopping, people jumping out the cars and running.

We are running off because you can't drive through because you've got thousands of people running off the Palm.

Okay.

And the screaming and the shouting. Yeah, it was just horrendous. People just running barefooted, just off, you know, through the bypasses, off.

Because you're hearing these missiles going over and being intercepted around you. Or you can. Looks like a firework coming up, like a lonely firework. And then that explosion. But we don't know if it's landing.

All we can see is they're coming over the Palm and they're coming over past near the Hilton, the Fairmont, but they're going off.

So we don't know where they're going to land or if they're going to land, because, of course, we have no idea of how they're protecting the skies at that point. And there's kind of a cluster of about eight of us. We kind of make it off onto sort of the bridges.

And off the bridges they're building some new sites. And we've managed to sort of climb into one of the sites and take some shelter underground. And I've just had to go dark.

I've made some calls, like the worst is going on. And all we can hear is the explosions vibrating through.

Bear in mind this building site is a core and we found our way in going, I think we'll be safe in here, but we don't know, right? And you've just got people around you screaming, shouting, in tears. Everyone's just wiping tears away.

Of course it's hot, we have no water, so you're just trying to navigate this. And then for about. We were there for maybe 40 minutes and then it went quiet. So I thought, right, let's get out, find a taxi.

So I've gone to find this taxi. God knows how I found a taxi with everything going on and the geese are sitting there that with headpods earphones in.

I'm banging the window, crying my eyes out, going, open the fucking door, open the door, let me in. And he hasn't got a clue what's going on. So I've told him, I've showed him the photos, he's like, where is this? I said, behind us.

So he's got out the car and he's realized, oh, wow, we have a problem here. Yeah. So, you know, I've decided, right, let's just get out of Dubai, head to Sajah, I'll pay whatever it is, just drive.

And then I made a couple calls and a friend of mine, she basically said, don't be so stupid, go on, go back to your hotel, find a safe place to go and hide. Well, I wasn't in a skyscraper, so I'm in like a smaller hotel. And the safest place for you is Dubai, because there is probably.

And now I believe that there is no safer place on the planet than Dubai. But we, of course, we don't know this. So I've gone back to the hotel and that night was long.

So I always remember, I go back in and not everybody knows what's gone on. I've come in and I've had to take my shoes off because I had some crappy whatever it was. I'm running along and I didn't realize I am cut to pieces.

I'm blooded. My legs, my feet, every my hands. I'm over me with blood from like cuts from running. So I've come in and.

So where did those come from?

Just running up the palm, right? That could be glass. There could be shingles, anything. Everyone's running.

Yeah.

Just for safety. Bear in mind, I've climbed into building sites, I've gone through rubble, mud, everything. Yeah.

And I've got, I've got my shoes, but I can't put my shoes on because they Hurt too much, I'm too cut. So I've just the adrenaline. Right, so you don't feel anything. So I've come into the hotel and everyone's sort of reception.

Look at me going, what's happened? I've explained, you know, they're like, oh my God, you're on the palm. So trying to sort of mend me up with some plasters. I've gone upstairs.

So she's taking me upstairs. It's a small little hotel, a little boutique. And I've gone to get some like a drink, just said, right, give me a whiskey.

And some absolute muppet comes in with some balloons. I'm thinking, what are you planning to do with these? Next thing I know, he's popping. Bear on.

I've just heard bombs go off and in Dubai there's no sign of aggression. Did I let go? Dalek? It just went. He stopped and then he carried on. And I'm like, what are you doing? Are you mental with what's just gone on?

Was he doing it on purpose?

No, he just, just clueless, right, clueless. He just didn't have a clue. What was he. He probably knew, but he just didn't know.

And I really quickly woke him up to the sound of what was going on right now. Ripped everything off him. And I don't think after me screaming and shouting at him, he, he did that again.

Yeah, but I was too worried, too scared to even eat at this point.

And that night was the longest night because they were going off through the night and I'm lying in bed and the vibrations through the buildings and you don't know if they're hitting. Right. My hotel was small, it was only a five story, six story, whatever, so I can't see into the sky. All we know is that we're small.

Maybe I should go underground. I don't know what to do. But I didn't sleep that night. So I'm literally like, I'm in tears, I'm texting what's happening, my mates.

And I'm getting messages saying, have you heard, have you just heard that?

You know, two minutes later, then I will hear it because obviously the sound vibrations coming through, then you're hearing messages going, Abu Dhabi. Just been here. And then we realized the pattern after a few days because they're, they're attacking the military bases and the American bases.

Of course, we're not too far from these as well. It was just scary. You know, you wake up in the morning and you'll. And your glass next to you is Vibrating.

And that is the sound because of when, when it goes off and you're in between you, the clusters coming over, bang, bang, bang. And you just don't want to leave the hotel. And eventually after sort of day three or four, I had enough there.

I decided to go to a skyscraper so I could see the skies. And I don't know if it was better for me or not to see them going off. At least I knew there weren't near me. And by day three, like just not sleeping.

Yeah, I've messaged a really close friend of mine, Veronica, and I was just like, what are you doing? She's like, right, we're getting out, we're going to go, we're going to go as far away as possible.

We're going to take a car and we're going to go up to near Raozakima. And I was like, can I come? She's like, yeah, get to my quick so have my bad packed. I jumped in the taxi and we just.

She drove us up there, road's dead. And we went there and there's a group of her friends and it was just so nice because it was quiet. It was the most. It was like bliss.

The water was, was aqua blue, the beaches were white sand.

There was nobody there and it was, it was just the middle of nowhere and we could actually just like, we calmed down a lot and by about 3 o' clock you start to hear the bombs again.

But what we realized is they were coming, they were getting closer, but they were being intercepted and they're being set off over the desert, you see. So the sounds, because we were right on the desert, the sounds are the bombs going off. But of course we still don't know that at the time.

All we're hearing is we're in a wooden shack and of course wood vibrates. So I'm like, to my left I've got the sea, to my right I've got a wooden shack.

But I look on a map, right, and I'm like, we are so far outside, you know, we are probably okay here. And then by about 11, 12 o' clock we jump in Reeves Calm, we travel back.

And I wanted to stay up there, but the reality was what would that have done?

And after a few more calls and the group, which were amazing and I think I was struggling out of the whole group because I was on the palm and seeing what I saw and the screams, I just had so much, it was all built up. And having seen that smoke in the fire, they were really sort of.

They Were looking after me in a way because I was certainly in the more teary one out the group of them. And they're just saying that you're the safest places in Dubai. It's great being out here, but it's safe in Dubai.

So I headed back to Dubai, moved hotels in the skyscraper so I could see what's going on. Did it help? I don't really know because I could still see this. I could still see the explosions.

And what was happening is what I didn't realize is when I'm walking through the hotel, I'm hearing more and more explosions. And where I'm sitting in the courtyard out the front, I'm hearing them. And even this is the sound of that I've just heard there.

That was the sound I was hearing. And I kept going outside. And the group people said they noticed why I'm going outside. And they said it's not the sounds of bombs.

It's actually the sound of trucks going under the bypass. When you have two trucks, they create boom, boom coming under. And that is the vibration we're hearing through the building.

Right.

And then I'm hearing where people putting the glasses down, the cups down. That's the sound. I realized I was actually not okay. I couldn't go to a bar because I was hypersensitive to every sound around me.

And I'm driving myself mad. I couldn't sleep. And I was trying to get sleep through the night. And waking up, it was just horrendous. It really was.

And because you got your mates messaging you photos, what's going on around them, you're seeing what's going on above. I walked to go and get to the mall. Just needed a walk. I just needed to get out.

And you're just hearing those around you and you're diving in somewhere for shelter. I was just like, how is this. How has this happened? And of course, the news is only on this.

Yeah.

I think, you know, over that period, you know, have a guess how many drones and missiles and ballistic missiles were sent to the uae? Do you have any idea what.

From Iran. From Iran in the bombing. It must be, what, thousands?

2,800, Right? Yeah, 2,000. Now, of course, barely any of them ever landed.

Yeah.

But most of them were intercepted over the seas and in the deserts, but many were intercepted over. Over population. And it's that sound.

Yeah. This was one of the things I have so many questions, but. But one of them was the.

The one that hit the Palm, wasn't that one that had been Intercepted. And it fell.

It was.

Yeah, so it had. They'd actually hit it but it didn't explode fully in the sky or whatever. So it just disabled it and it.

Fell and it fell. And that sound of what that made. Bear in mind these are still three and a half meters.

These, these drones, they are unbelievable size and when they hit they make a, a mighty racket and sound. But yeah, it was intercepted. Yeah, but it didn't half cause some damage. Smoke.

Oh, I'm sure it's the panic and then it's the ones which were being intercepted around you because on the Palm, guess what, the buildings are tall. And it's that sound and the vibrations and it's a case that nobody really quite understood. And the fact that we can't fly out and we are stuck.

And that was the biggest. So the journey really went from my.

I had the business there, we couldn't really start because we weren't allowed to be working outside and certainly inside. And of course people were scared. So I stayed and finished the job.

So we got the stuff done, we finished the project we needed to do and my mindset was like, get back home, just get out. Everyone else is fleeing. How do I get out? So I had some really good well wishing memories.

But one that one of the biggest ones was my memories was on that night on the Palm. I'm video calling, you know, I'm leaving messages for my kids, my final moments because the sound above me is going off.

I'm underground, I'm walking under a building site and I don't know if I'm getting out of it. And you just hear a group of people and I'm just like on rocks just leaving some videos because I don't know if I'm going to come out of this.

We have no idea.

But to for a father to leave his two little girls their final, final wishes, I'm sending a message to my best mate saying, look, this is where the will is, this is where the safe is, this is the code. This is what I need you to do. Same one to the lawyer saying, I don't know if I'm going to make out of this.

And the more I realized that more people actually did the same. They don't all talk about it, but those people that day know who they are. Which on that and they, everyone realizes how terrified they are.

And I can't begin to think what a family was like with children that because I was there on my own, I can handle that. But with children, a family would have been like horrendous.

And it made me realize that day that I've been all my life been chasing money, never enough. And I've had from a pound in my bank to million pound in my bank and it was never about. I realized that was just a commodity which comes and goes.

To be so close and to be so worried that life is over on that day and were you gonna get out of there? Nothing mattered. I was prepared to pay anything to get out, out of that place.

But it didn't help.

Didn't help help.

The best the no matter how much money you had, you weren't getting out. Cause they weren't letting flights out, they weren't even the Ritz weren't getting out.

Nobody was getting out. And it was horrendous. And the only thing which really saved me was my friends over there.

Two or three of them were my savior there, I think because they just rallied around and to have that close knit friendship group, there was just everything and you know, for that I'll ever be grateful because it was, it was tough. And all I'm thinking about getting to see my kids and I had some amazing messages from my friends and family and asking what's going on.

And one, an ex colleague of mine, she, she organized my safe travel into India. She made some calls for her family members to pick me up in India.

I booked a flight, I had to get over to, I was going, I was flying out of Oman and I had to get into Oman Somehow I had 18 hours to get into Oman and I had to have my safe travel from, I had to have my flight booked to get into Oman. From Oman I had to then get into India. India. I had my, I had a collection and my hotels booked. She organized everything.

So that's how you got home. Was going that way, I was booked.

To go that way. And I was dead set. I was getting out as an entrepreneur. I wasn't worried with it. I was like, I will find that way.

We always do as entrepreneurs, we find a solution. So that was like I knew I had the DNA for it. But then one day, next morning, I wake up at 7 o' clock and I managed to get some sleep.

So I woke up, I checked my phone and I had a message from Virgin saying your flight is scheduled to go at 9 o'. Clock. Get to the airport immediately. And I'm like, is this really happening? Is it not? So anyway, I, I was always packed, my bag was packed.

So I was like, I used to say I was bomb ready. I was always I always slept fully closed in a T shirt and shorts. Kind of what I'm wearing now really.

I was ready so bad bag on straight to the airport and.

And was that after this incident? You didn't do that before, did you?

No, I was, you know, as soon as the, everything was going off I was like. Because, because we used to get alerts, siren alerts, get to safety. So you go downstairs into the basement. So you always bag ready, right?

Passports always on you. Phones always on you. Emergency charge is always backed up. Now in my bag there's always two bottles of water should I anything happen?

So you, you in survival mode. We were in survival mode during that, that, that course and I get to the airport and place there.

So I showed them the text and said yeah, you, you should be boarding.

So I get all the way through and they don't really know who are because we were one of the first flights out and we boarded on and it wasn't full, it was busy but it wasn't full because they put it on so quickly. But the crew was already there and the.

What I understand from the crew, the, the pilot was xrf so he put a lot of, what's the word, comfort into everybody.

And we had a, you know, on screen course, you look at your flight pattern that was changing because we were told we were going to go straight out of Dubai, through Abu Dhabi and straight into Saudi. We were not flying the traditional route for obvious reasons. That doesn't make you feel better on the plane, right?

Because where do you not want to be where missiles are going off. And of course we know missiles hit to buy airport. We know that, that's common knowledge. It was recorded on the press.

So yeah, I didn't tell anybody I was flying out. I just, I don't think it happened too quickly. And I was so focused on getting out. I never actually communicated to anyone else flying out really.

I think I messaged one person, my friend Richard, then said look, we're due to catch up at 12 lunch. I think I'm flying out. And I did, I managed to get that plane out and as soon as we got into Saudi airspace, the plane was quiet. Nobody was talking.

It was the unspoken word of everybody was just watching their screen for about an hour and a half.

And even when we got into Saudi airspace, people started chatting a little bit more the sigh of relief without the cheer because there was nothing to cheer about because everyone was terrified. And I think people found comfort talking to everybody else about your own experiences.

And I end up chatting to Some guys next to me and then there's about three or four people start chatting and then I got asked by the sjs to go out the back and there's about seven or eight of them wanting to hear the same story. And we had this chat and I was just explaining, you know, what happened.

And I think everyone found comfort by we all shared the same thing because we were terrified. And people of course out having drinks and partying of course because you are protecting Dubai.

But that only came apparent really after day three or four what was going on. And the governments in Dubai were just incredible how they kept everybody safe.

How they did the videos explaining their thud system of how they have a five tier system to protect the skies and how you know, nobody is everybody's safe and how they plan to keep that and their skies haven't been breached and their skies won't be breached and how you should go about the day. And the Marathi family were out in the shopping centers and yes, you might hear noise but that is them protecting us guys.

And that put a huge comfort around going oh my gosh, now I realize it is okay to hear those sounds. And that was fine. Many people exited and many people stayed.

Of course will I go back on a vacation but I don't think I'll go back to, to do business there.

I think that story ended and it had had that ending but I've come back and realized, you know, my kids like every parent are the most important thing in the world and you'll do everything for, for your children and maybe I don't chase money anymore. Of course I'm a male, I do, but not how I did. I see things differently now and yeah and I think that massively changed my, my output in life really.

I know where I want to be in the next 10 years and that and that has changed. I've taken a lot of time out to help other people instead of starting my own business here again and I have done since I was 17, 18.

I'm now helping others with their businesses which is completely different what I would normally do. And I think maybe it's just because I'm still suffering and I'm still in that, that stage of what happened.

It's going to take me longer to get over it but I'm busy keeping myself busy by helping others and I don't have that burden of my own thing.

Are you still sensitive to noises?

I am more so now, yeah. I mean with the thunderstorm the other day I woke up in bed and that was quite it was tough, about 5 to 10 seconds. Then reality kicks in.

It's thunder. But it's not the first thing that's come. Most people come in, oh, it's a thunderstorm. For me, it wasn't.

I'm thinking other things, and if I'm out and there's a big noise or friend's party recently and someone set party poppers off, that sets me off. And of course, the lads find that hilarious.

And of course, within seconds, they're rounding up as many of those as possible, which I found funny, of course, you know, because you understand what that is. And it's gone through that initial. But I wasn't going to hang around, you know, to hear those sounds. I was straight out.

See, it's. It's interesting that you say that because I used to have a friend who is ex US Special Forces, and.

We.

Were in Richmond in a restaurant, and somebody popped a balloon in the back. And I literally, like, he jumped out of his chair and then somebody popped another balloon. And he was like, can you stop that?

And they were, you know, they were basically joking around. Like, that guy was right. And I could see Jameson was like, panicked, not quite panicked.

I mean, he knew what was going on, but he was like, we can't stay here.

We have to leave.

And so we. We got up and we left. But I mean, you know, he was like a combat veteran. Right.

Like, he'd done tours in actual combat, so you can imagine what a soldier.

Totally different. Yeah.

Like how that must fuck with their head when they come back as well. So, you know, we had to be really careful. We didn't have to be, but we were sensitive to, you know, that kind of thing.

So if we were somewhere where there was a lot of noise or something like that, we were just sensitive and we go, okay, well, we'll go somewhere else and do something different. So it's interesting that you had the same thing just in that.

Yeah.

Short. Because how long was that? That.

It was really a couple of weeks. It was. The missiles were going off in total, I think it was over a period of about on and off, 10 to 12 weeks.

Right. Okay.

I had. I was out of there after about 10, 8 to 10 days.

Okay.

So I only had two weeks of it. But they were the, for me, the worst days because they were the. When the most was. Was being sent over.

Yeah.

You know, some days we would have hundreds being sent and going off and then we don't hear them because they were all different parts of the uae, but Dubai was definitely A huge, huge target.

Yeah.

And I am sensed more sensitive to noise now and it's that trigger. I just have these triggers, but I'm getting better with it. But I'm slowly. I'm open to. I know what they are and that's. And that's definitely helping.

But I think it stopped me doing my own thing again for a while and that's holding me back. And I think I've just realize, you know, there's more to life than chasing that pound. It's super important.

But that pound will find you again because when you're an entrepreneur, opportunities gravitate towards you. So that's. That's certainly be interesting. And I suspend so much more time with the kids and doing stuff with friends, family.

Now I don't go out in many bars anymore. I've limited that by about 90% because of the noise. If I go out, it might be garden.

Okay.

I try not to be anywhere where it's too noisy.

Yeah.

Because of. I'm a little bit concerned about, you know, not smashing sounds and. Yeah. So I massively limit the amount I go out now and not.

I don't like too crowded places. So.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And they'll take time to get over.

It will. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it will.

And hopefully if it, you know, if it doesn't get any better, I would suggest that you see somebody to maybe help you through that.

Yeah, I think there's definitely. So I think you've interviewed some people as well, which can help.

Yeah. And I know some people I can, I can put you in contact with who are trauma specialists who can, who could help you maybe. But.

Okay, I have another question and I don't know if you've thought about this. When, when, when you're at the Palm in that first explosion, it's a new come to realize what's going on.

Did you react in the way that you thought you would react before that happened?

I think I was, well, maybe As I said, 50 yards away if that from it. And for the first couple minutes I didn't know what it was. So it took me a while to go is it. Could it be. And it's only when more started coming over.

So what, what can you do right. When you've got thousands and thousands of people are emptying the hotels and running. You know, the place will evacuate, the hotel is evacuating.

You know, the, the Fairmont's, everyone's coming out of it, Hilton's, everyone's springing out onto the roads. The only thing you can do is exit and, you know, helping other people which are running on their own to find safety.

So I guess where I was different to everybody else, my instinct was to find underground shelter and get out of where we thought was what was being here, because we just assumed those hotels were being targeted because we don't know any difference. So there was a cluster of about, as I said, about eight, six, eight of us. And I managed to find some shelter and that's where we were.

Like, I think we'll be safe here. Let's get under here. And maybe that was my part to play with it, but everyone had to try to exit from where they were.

Plus, obviously the police are turning up. So there was no one. People weren't running back into the hotel.

Everyone's running out, out of that because of course, for safety, do you run into the fire? Of course, nobody, we realized nobody was seriously hurt or injured during that course. And it wasn't, it was a drone.

So, yeah, I think your instinct is to run and exit but help others along the way, which I think did help because there's a lot of people which were struggling, certainly females, which had heels on, which couldn't run in heels, clearly. So people just leaving their shoes and just running. So I think helping others did was part of that.

Okay, interesting. Just because I know, you know, there's the fight or flight and then there's freeze and fun which go with that as well.

So some, you know, either you're running to it, you're running away, some people just don't know what to do and they just freeze. And some people, you know, do the fawning thing. But yeah, I was just curious if it, you know, because we. I through.

Through my life I've learned that when I get in that I'm a fight person, so I usually run towards whatever it is. Like I'm not. Do you know what I mean? But I don't know, like, if.

If something serious happened, like a bomb or a missile or something like that, if that happened, I don't know if I would do that. I might run, which would surprise me. Do you know what I mean?

So I guess because you could see them coming over the palm, so you can see them in the sky and you can see them dropping and they're being intercepted. So you can only assume they are hitting that area of the palm. The palm is under attack.

Right.

So from a simple mathematics, palm under attack, exit the palm, exit the bomb. Yeah, that's what everybody did. Yeah, yeah. There wasn't many people running Back into that. Everybody was exiting those and as a max exodus.

So even though there was, you know, no more that actually landed over there, we don't know that because, well, they didn't explode. Didn't explode.

So.

And the way they're coming over, we can't. The buildings are so tall, you don't know where they're being intercepted. But of course they're being intercepted over the water.

Right, okay.

Makes the sound, that's the vibration.

Yeah.

Okay. So yeah, it was certainly a life changing experience in the process.

I'm also curious what it's like. I've got a guy that I've spoken to and he drowned and then was in a coma. Obviously survived. He didn't drown and die, he survived the drowning.

And I'm curious to talk to him because it's not something you get to talk to people about very often about what that's like. Can you talk just a little bit about what's the thought process?

Because you said you were calling and leaving messages and videos for your family and stuff. What is the thought process and what's that like when you have to do that and then how do you feel afterwards?

I think it's terrifying, you know, I think, you know, the first instinct to anybody is your family, right, Call your family. But I didn't really make too many phone calls. I made a couple of phone calls very quick, but it was more videos because phone calls not recorded.

So I sent the girls some videos and just saying goodbye to the children, basically, that was the real tough one.

Get them done, whip them off over to the kids and then sent a couple to my mates to forward on as well, just in case because you're just like, right, just. You don't know if, you don't know if insert's going to go down, you don't know if the phone is. Is there's going to be a problem with that.

So you, you just don't know. So it's just try and ping as many as possible, done and off a couple of instructions. Right.

You know, as a male and I guess entrepreneur, I had some things sorted and I've got.

Always got will, I've got other things in place and you know, a couple of quick instructions is enough to sort of get things sorted and I was very quick just to get those done.

And I guess that's kind of where you're at peace with it because, you know, you've left the videos, you've said goodbye and you've given the instructions. So it's the rest is the rest is okay. And I think I was at peace that my dad died young so he didn't have a will.

And so I know how much shit I went through trying to sort of that hag out and I was like, I will never do that. So I had that in play and.

That's a whole different story.

I think we'll touch on another time because I'm conscious of time because I know you have somewhere to be this afternoon and we've had a good conversation and otherwise we'll end up talking for three hours. So we'll come back and talk about that whole thing because I've heard you talk about that before. So you get home, what's that like when you commit?

Because obviously I assume your kids have seen your messages and all that sort of stuff by then or, or did you like send it to your wife and say show these to the kids if something happens?

Yeah, of course.

I mean I think my eight year old, she became aware because she could see what was going on and she, she knew the news wasn't fully deep understanding but aware of something, something was going on. Yeah. So I think really it was. Everybody at home was terrified. My mum, the whole family was, was terrified.

Even my brothers probably were a little bit worried. But getting home, I said I didn't tell anyone.

I got, I got into the UK and I just focused about just getting out, get in the car and just driving home.

And did you not call them from India or anything and just be like I'm on a flight?

No, I, I was, I just didn't. And I do know, I think maybe would have sparked panic as well flying for eight hours.

So I got home and I, you know, I drove straight home, it was late as well, so got home late and my 8 year old shouting to her mum, mum, Daddy's car's there. And of course the, she's saying, well no, you know there's other car on the road. There could be other people with the same car as Daddy.

No, it's Daddy, it's daddy's number plates. Of course it's a personalized number plate and the. Not too many cars like that.

And I could hear her in the room and I've just come up the stairs and I can. My 8 year old, she's getting her hair brushed and Lily's come out and she's just sort of looked and stared like is that really you?

And then my 4 year old's come out and she was just like quiet and then Lily jumped on me, gave me A massive hug. And then Emily sort of slowly walked over and then she's like, oh my God, Daddy. And then it was a cool scene. It was a surprise for them.

And it was amazing to. To hug them again because it was that. I didn't think I would for that. That horrible few days. And then getting back home. I just need the kids.

And it was nice to be home, see friends, family, loved ones and just like, get some sleep. Get some sleep.

Do you have a good sleep?

No, I do not know. For a while I was just having nightmares and waking up during the night. Planes, helicopters, because we're used to the sound of a.

Of noise of what plane makes over is a drone noise to us.

Right.

So I was very alert. So I had a lot of broken sleep. And I found myself trying to sleep through the day a little bit.

And it took a few weeks, maybe a month to sort of get over that. And now it's fine, it sees better. But being reunited with the family and loved ones and friends was amazing.

That's a pretty crazy story.

Yeah.

It's not something that. Again, that's a total. I would say that's a total misadventure. Right. It wasn't your fault. Right. You were just in a place that something happened.

Yeah.

Again, I'm conscious of time, but one last question. So what would your advice be to someone if they find themselves in a similar circumstance?

Now that you've been through it and you've sort of had a chance to reflect on what you did and what happened and how you got through it, what would your advice be to one of us if we're in somewhere and something similar happens?

I think you have to. I think it just depends on the world. You are right, because different places in the world have their different defense systems.

But I think you have to put trust in. In the government that they do.

A lot of these countries have missile defense systems which have the capabilities of shooting down rockets and defending their skies. Not all as good as others, but you have to have some trust. You have to have some faith. And if you believe in.

In something, say prayers and just stick. You know, call friends and family and don't be alone. You know, that's when you need people around and try and panic's the easiest thing.

But surround yourself by other people is the best thing because it's easier in groups as well. And you have to remember if something's under attack, it's not necessarily going for, you know, civilized and domestic places.

They are going for Navy bases. So the first Thing I did was check are you close? And was I close to a Navy base?

And chat gbt AI is the best for that because it will tell you how far away you are.

And any route I went, I'd make sure nowhere near a navy base and make sure you're in somewhere where you have some kind of underground shelters, which would be my. If you're in a hotel basements and car parks. So that's what I would do and really have to be.

You have to think they're not trying to attack as civilians, they're attacking the bases and where rockets and operations are being launched from.

Yeah. Luckily after World War II, we all decided that maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

Yeah, exactly.

Liam, thank you very much.

Thanks for having me.

And we'll get you back another time because I do want to talk to you about the other story. Right.

Because you have some other adventures that have happened earlier in your life and you have a really interesting story about how you've had an up and down rollercoaster, particularly in business and your personal life. And I do want to touch on that as well. But I think, yeah, I think that deserves another conversation.

So we'll get you back another time if that's amazing.

Perfect. Well, thank you for having me.

Brilliant. Thanks, Liam.

All right, take care.

Cheers. Bye.

Bye.

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