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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Josh Salisbury

UK family 'abandoned' in Jordan after flights cancelled following Iran's missile attack on Israel

A British family has told how they have been left “stranded” in Jordan after Iran launched its missile and drone attack on Israel on Saturday night.

The Deweys from Bristol said their flight back home from the Middle Eastern country was cancelled by Wizz Air on Saturday after they had passed through security - with subsequent flights by the carrier cancelled until April 23.

It came as Jordan, along with the US, Britain and France, helped to repel the attack on Israel.

Dad Jon Dewey, his wife Sam, and their sons Gabriel, 23, and Jem, 18, had been visiting his 21-year-old daughter Joely, who is doing a university placement in the country.

Speaking to the MailOnline, Mr Dewey said: “We looked at our phones and saw that Iran had launched its drone strikes on Israel.

“We were shepherded into the car park to wait for transport to take us to a hotel and we had a clear view of the aerial bombardments.

“We all stood there watching the burning debris as drones were shot out of the sky. There were several explosions nearby. You could hear the thump of bombs.

“We felt a bit of panic. We were seeing these drones. We didn’t know how long the attack was going to last or where the missiles were going to land.”

A Wizz Air spokesperson said all passengers have been provided with hotels and that they have been contacted with options for onward travel.

Airlines have a duty to find alternative flights if they cancel a flight, but the Dewey family say subsequent Wizz Air flights have been cancelled, with no guarantee that the April 23 flight will also not be cancelled.

Mr Dewey said: “Israel is threatening to retaliate against Iran. We could be stuck in a war zone for weeks if that happens!”

A Wizz Air spokesperson said: “We would like to express our sincerest apologies to customers impacted by the cancellation of flight W9 5304 from Amman to the UK.

“We know that this would have caused significant disruption for those affected.

“The health and safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority and, in this instance, the flight was cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control.”

Israel's military chief said on Monday that his country will respond to Iran's weekend attack, but he did not elaborate on when and how.

The Iranian attack on Saturday is the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel despite decades of tensions dating back to the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

It came after a suspected Israeli strike two weeks earlier on an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed two Iranian generals.

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