‘We paid £1,500 for a disco bus to escape Dubai for a Heathrow flight out of the Middle East’
A British couple paid £1,500 to travel hundreds of miles across the Middle East in a “disco bus” to fly from Oman to London to escape the escalating war in the region.
While the UK government’s first repatriation flight from Muscat failed to take off on Wednesday due to a technical issue, a British Airways (BA) flight from the Omani capital touched down at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 shortly before 9am on Thursday.
Passengers included consultants Sarah, 54, and Ed Short, 58, from Kent, who were greeted by emotional family members upon their return to the UK.
The couple were on holiday in Dubai and were due to leave the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday, but their flight home was grounded due to airspace closures due to the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, which has seen Gulf countries hit by missile strikes.
Ms Short said they returned to their accommodation in Dubai and holed up in the basement for 10 hours during the air raids. When they received news that some flights would resume, they acted quickly and looked for a way home.
Relieved, the couple returned to London on Thursday morning, paying £1,500 for a taxi to take them almost 300 miles by road from Dubai to the Omani capital for their flight leaving on Wednesday night.
Mr Short said after landing in London: Independent: “FCDO [Foreign Office] “The advice was to stay put, but we said, ‘Yeah, don’t run away.'”
The means of escape to Oman’s capital was hardly conventional; Ms Short described it as “the craziest taxi you’ve ever seen”.
He said: “It was a disco bus, bright lights on the roof, crazy. I don’t know where they got it but he put out drinks for us. It was comfortable.”
The trip took the couple about seven hours, and they were trying to stay in touch with family at home. But when they reached the Oman border, their families started to worry.
Ms Short said: “We didn’t have internet so the kids were trying to follow us and as soon as we got to the Oman border they couldn’t follow us anymore. So they thought we were arrested because they didn’t hear from us again until we got to the airport but it was totally fine.
“I’m sure there are people in much worse situations, but we have a great story to tell at dinner parties.”
Mr Short said when they arrived at Muscat airport to board their flight they were met with “chaos” as large crowds of people had gathered, desperate to escape the Middle East.
About 130,000 Britons have registered their presence in the territory and the Foreign Office said it was working with airlines to bring them back. The government said the failed evacuation flight would depart later on Thursday and two more flights were planned in the coming days.
Mr Short said: “We met a lot of people who had booked a repatriation flight, we met a lot of people who said, ‘We don’t have a reservation, we’ve just arrived.’
“People were there and were obviously expecting to leave at 11 o’clock. [and] As you know, they never broke up. They were trying to get on them before us. “It was a little messy.”
But Mr Short had nothing but praise for BA staff and said the overwhelming feeling on the flight was a relief.
Ms Short said her sister, as well as her sons and their partners, were at Heathrow to greet them when their flight landed at 8.41am on Thursday morning, two hours behind schedule.
“[Walking through the arrival gate] it was great. “The family was cheering and it was like, ‘Wow.'”
Walking to his car for the final stage of his journey to Canterbury, Mr Short said: “I need to get out of here and extend my parking time, but now they’ll probably try to charge me extra to get out.”
