Surrounded by friends and family on the island of Phuket, Thailand, Darren Osbourn and Nicola Smith had what can only be described as a dream wedding.
But, five days after trying to return home to London, they are still stranded in Oman, experiencing – as they describe it – an “extended honeymoon in a war zone”.
The newlyweds, along with their two young children, are now among scores of Britons trapped in the Middle East anxiously waiting to find out if they will get a space on the government’s first rescue flight.
The couple paid £1,400 to apply for four seats on the repatriation flight, which will travel from Oman’s capital, Muscat, to Heathrow on Wednesday evening. But there is no certainty that they will be chosen for a seat.
They are now sitting in their hotel, hoping for good news.
“My priority is just to get the family home,” he said.
The government is set to fly 180 British nationals home on the flight. The move was announced early on Wednesday as the Middle East crisis deepened following the US and Israel’s attack on Iran on the weekend. A further two government charter flights are planned for the coming days.
For Mr Osbourn, 45, there is an extra worry of being left behind in Muscat, without his family. Women and children are given priority seating on the flight, meaning he may be separated from his partner, six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.
The family had stopped over in Doha on their way home from Thailand. But their flight was diverted to Muscat on Saturday morning after Iran came under attack.
Mr Osbourn did not know at that point what had happened but, as they touched down in Muscat, he saw large ships in a “formation” and suspected something major had happened.
He told The Independent: “The captain came over, and said ‘there’s been a bit of trouble in Iran’”.
His family sat on the plane for four hours before they were deboarded and bussed to hotels.
Iran later retaliated with strikes on Oman. Military planes have since been flying over Muscat which he said has been “quite scary”.
He said: “They started attacking Oman, and it didn’t feel real, and then the jets were flying over and it felt like ‘okay, this is serious’.”
As his family waits, in the hotel funded by Qatar Airways, Ms Osbourn said he has been worried for their safety.
They have not wanted to stray too far from the airport and have been told not to go near government buildings or US embassies.
He heard about the repatriation flight from his family on Wednesday morning and phoned the consulate, which sent him a link to register for seats on the flight.
The cost to register was £350 per seat. Mr Osbourn has not been told whether he will receive a refund if he doesn’t get a ticket.
“Once you have paid your money, then you go into some sort of ballot to get allocated a seat,” he added.
Some 130,000 British nationals have registered their presence in the Middle East since the war broke out.
If you are trying to return to the UK from the Middle East, please contact harriette.boucher@independent.co.uk
With their bags packed, the family is now waiting at their hotel 20 minutes away from the airport. They do not know if, and when, they will be told they have been given seats.
Mr Osbourn said he was surprised to find out that the government was charging them to get on the flight and called up the consulate to check if it was a scam.
He believes the government should have been chartering flights earlier, given that the airspace remains open in Oman, but praised officials for their support since he registered his interest in leaving.
“Let’s face it, this wasn’t going to be a weekend war,” he said. “Muscat airspace was always open. It never shut. There was no reason why they couldn’t have jumped on this a lot earlier and got these repatriation flights going instead [waiting] five days.”
Since Saturday, the communication from his carrier Qatar Airways had been a “shambles”, he said. “I’m really disappointed with the way Qatar Airways have dealt with this, they’ve just left us basically.”
Their family was unable to get their luggage, which included nappies, clothing, and their son’s medication, until Tuesday.
He added: “Trying to get hold of someone from Qatar, I’ll probably have more of a chance of speaking to Donald Trump. We’ve been trying to contact them. We have been put from pillar to post.”
Some commercial flights are operating from Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE but the vast majority are cancelled because of airspace restrictions caused by the conflict.
British Airways announced it will operate two more flights between the capital Muscat and London Heathrow, on Friday and Saturday.
Sir Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that more than 1,000 British nationals arrived back in the UK on commercial flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday. Eight more UK flights are scheduled to leave the UAE on Wednesday, he said.
There is not expected to be a widespread evacuation of the 138,000 British nationals who have registered their presence in the Middle East.
The Independent has contacted the Foreign Office and Qatar Airways for comment.
