Newlywed Brits face anxious wait for spot on UK’s first repatriation flight as government begins charter flights from Oman
Surrounded by friends and family on the Thai island of Phuket, Darren Osbourn and Nicola Smith had what can only be described as a dream wedding.
But five days after trying to return to London, they are still stranded in Oman, living what they call “a long honeymoon in the war zone”.
The newlyweds, with their two young children, are among scores of Britons stranded in the Middle East, waiting to see if they will be on the government’s first rescue flight.
The couple paid £1,400 to apply for four seats on a repatriation flight from Oman’s capital Muscat to Heathrow on Wednesday evening. However, there is no certainty that they will be elected to the seat.
Now they are sitting in their hotel and waiting for good news.
“My priority is to get the family home,” he said.
The government plans to fly 180 British citizens to their country by plane. The move was announced early Wednesday as the Middle East crisis deepened after the United States and Israel attacked Iran over the weekend. Two more government charter flights are planned in the coming days.
There is also growing concern for Mr Osbourn, 45, of being left without his family in Muscat. Women and children are given priority seating on the flight, meaning they can be separated from their partner and children.
The family had stopped in Doha on their way home from Thailand. However, after Iran was attacked, their flight was diverted to Muscat on Saturday morning.
Mr Osbourn did not know what had happened at that point, but when they landed in Muscat he saw large ships in a “formation” and suspected something big had happened.
he said Independent: “The captain came and said, ‘There’s some trouble in Iran.’”
His family sat on the plane for four hours before being deplaned and taken to hotels.
Iran then retaliated by attacking Oman. Since then, military planes have been flying over Muscat “it’s pretty scary,” he said.
“They started attacking Oman and it didn’t seem real to me, then the jets flew in and it felt like ‘okay, this is serious’.”
As her family awaits their “long honeymoon in a war zone,” Ms. Osbourn said she fears for their safety.
They didn’t want to travel too far from the airport and were told not to go near government buildings or U.S. embassies.
He heard about his repatriation flight from his family on Wednesday morning and called the consulate, which sent him a link to book a seat on the flight.
The registration fee was £350 per seat. Mr. Osbourn was not told whether he would get a refund if he couldn’t get a ticket.
“Once you pay your money, you enter into some form of voting to allocate a seat,” he added.
Approximately 130,000 British citizens have registered their presence in the Middle East since the start of the war.
If you are trying to return to the UK from the Middle East please contact harriette.boucher@independent.co.uk.
The family packs their suitcases and waits at their hotel, 20 minutes away from the airport. They don’t know if and when they will be told that they have been given a seat.
Mr. Osbourn said he was surprised to learn the government was charging them to board the plane and called the consulate to check if it was a scam.
He believes the government should have arranged flights earlier as Oman’s airspace remains open, but he praised officials for their support as he expressed interest in leaving.
“Let’s face it, this is not going to be a weekend fight,” he said. “Muscat airspace was always open. It was never closed. There was no reason why they shouldn’t have started this work so early and started repatriation flights instead.” [waiting] five days.”
Since Saturday, the airline said communication from Qatar Airways has been “confused”. “I’m really disappointed with the way Qatar Airways has dealt with this matter, they’ve basically abandoned us.”
Their families did not receive their luggage, which included diapers, clothing and their son’s medication, until Tuesday.
He added: “I’ll probably have a better chance of talking to Donald Trump when I’m trying to reach someone in Qatar.
“We’re trying to contact them. We’ve been relegated to post.”
Some commercial flights operate in the UAE from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but the vast majority have been canceled due to airspace restrictions caused by the conflict.
British Airways announced that it will operate two more flights between the capital Muscat and London Heathrow on Friday and Saturday.
More than 1,000 British citizens returned to the UK on commercial flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer said on Wednesday. Eight more UK flights are scheduled to leave the UAE on Wednesday, the official said.
A large-scale evacuation of the 138,000 British citizens who have registered their presence in the Middle East is not expected.
Independent It contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Qatar Airways for comment.
