The not so great escape: First government repatriation flight out of the Middle East finally leaves after first attempt hit by 'technical delays'

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The first government repatriation flight for Britons stranded in the Middle East has finally taken off from Oman, hours after it was branded a 's***show' for failing to leave last night due to 'technical delays'.

The aircraft chartered by the Foreign Office for British nationals being evacuated from Muscat to the UK was grounded because the pilot had exceeded his hours and 'needed to rest', according to passengers.

People due to take off for home last night became 'very agitated' and started 'banging windows' with some having 'panic attacks' when it failed to leave to escape the widening Iran war.

A Foreign Office spokesman told the Daily Mail: 'The UK government charter flight was not able to depart from Oman yesterday as planned due to technical issues. The flight is now expected to depart later today'.

The Prime Minister, who is already under fire at home for not joining in US-Israel strikes on the Iranian regime, confirmed on Thursday afternoon the flight had finally left Muscat, some 19 hours after its scheduled 7pm slot. 

Sir Keir said: 'More than 4,000 people have now arrived back in the United Kingdom on commercial flights from the UAE, including vulnerable Brits identified by our teams.

'A further seven flights are due to leave the UAE for the UK today, and I can report that our first charter flight from Oman took off a few minutes ago.

'We will lay on additional charter flights in the coming days.

'British Airways is putting on daily flights from Oman, and we will keep working with all of our partners to increase the speed and capacity of this airlift.

'I want to be very clear, this is a huge undertaking.'

It is thought the flight will arrive into London Stansted airport, having stopped briefly in Cairo to refuel on the way. 

Elsewhere in his press conference on the conflict in the Middle East, Sir Keir announced the UK is sending four more Typhoon fighter jets to join its defensive operations in Qatar. 

It came as other European nations such Austria and Spain successfully evacuated its citizens last night. In Austria the country's foreign minister was even waiting to greet passengers. Around 400 Irish citizens also landed home in Dublin from Dubai on Wednesday evening.

As war with Iran intensifies, it emerged today:

• Iran fired a number of missiles toward Israel in the early hours of Thursday  but Israeli military claims launch numbers are decreasing. Explosions heard in Qatar and Bahrain;
• Two Israeli strikes near Lebanon's capital Beirut have left three people dead and six injured;
• UK Defence Secretary John Healey is visiting Cyprus amid concerns about protection of RAF Akrotiri. The UK is sending the HMS Dragon warship - but not until next week;
• Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the first government chartered repatriation flight to bring Britons home from the region has taken off; 
• Frightened holidaymakers and British nationals are scrambling for flights home, with some families paying up to £100,000 for private jets to escape Dubai;
• Back in Britain, mourners holding a candlelit vigil for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have clashed with anti-Iranian regime protestors in Manchester city centre; 
• Thousands of Kurdish fighters have launched a ground invasion in Iran.

Spanish nationals pictured boarding a military repatriation flight in Oman on Wednesday. A British mercy flight failed to take off due to delays and then the pilot exceeding his hours

The first government repatriation flight has now taken off from Muscat, Oman, for the UK, the Prime Minister said this afternoon

One person on board the plane last night said the evacuation was a 'total shambles', reporting checking in for the flight took at least four hours and then they waited on the plane for another 90 minutes before the flight was called off.

They said: 'Due to slow check-in and delays, the pilot had clocked his hours so needed to rest. No consular staff were present airside. They just left us. People started getting very agitated, banging windows, panic attacks'. They branded the entire experience a 's***show'.

Another passenger said: 'We've been transferred to a hotel and it's expected to depart later today. It's a total farce.'

A third described it diplomatically as 'a very difficult situation for everyone' especially after 'a very long day'. 

Those eligible for a seat on a government rescue flight are being asked to pay around £350. Poppy Cleary, 27, paid for her seat but claims she 'never heard back' and remains stranded in Oman.

The British plane was due to depart the capital Muscat at 11pm local time (7pm UK time) on Wednesday in what would have been the first repatriation effort by the UK Foreign Office since the Middle East conflict began. 

Today Home Office Minister Alex Norris said that 'problems with getting passengers on board' was the cause of the delay. 

He told LBC: 'It didn't take off because there are operational reasons... about getting passengers on board, and it wasn't able to happen in the time that it had to happen. So that's now going to go today instead.' 

British expats have been increasingly frustrated by the lack of urgency over getting them out of the Middle East - with British Airways running an emergency evacuation flight with more than 100 empty seats on Monday.

As of this morning, six days into the conflict, no flights had taken off with the help of the government. 

Poppy Cleary, 27, was stranded in Muscat when her flight from Singapore was diverted to Oman on Saturday following the outbreak of war and attempted to get a seat on last night's cancelled flight.

'I registered, I paid the £350 and then I never heard back,' she told BBC's Your Voice.

Austria's Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger welcomes passengers upon the arrival of a charter plane carrying Austrian nationals evacuated from Muscat last night

Happy scenes as the Italian government's rescue flight from Abu Dhabi arrives at Fiumicino Airport

'Clearly I didn't get on the flight - it's a bit frustrating that they couldn't even let me know that I hadn't made the cut.'

She said the British Embassy in Oman told her that the first flight was not for people who had been diverted to Muscat, but instead for people who had come to Oman from 'unsafe countries' including the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. 

Other commercial flights have been taking off from the region on a reduced basis.

One anonymous passenger who was booked on the Muscat flight described the situation as a 'total s***show'.

They told Sky News: 'The check-in process took about four hours due to technical issues. We then got taken to the plane on a bus but had to stay on it for about one-and-a-half hours.

'There are dozens and dozens of vulnerable people, young children and families.

Poppy Cleary, 27, told the BBC: 'I paid the £350 and then I never heard back'

'We had no way of contacting consular staff to find out what was wrong.

'Eventually we were taken back to the terminal with no guidance or consular staff present for about an hour.

'We were told due to slow check-in and delays the pilot had clocked his hours so needed to rest.

'They then disembarked us, and we were taken to a hotel.

'We have been told the plane will take off later today [Thursday] once the pilot has rested.

'The stress this has caused these vulnerable people is incredibly serious.'

Since the war broke out between Iran and the US and Israel on Saturday, more than 140,000 Britons have registered their presence in the Middle East with the UK government.

Airports across the region were initially closed after Iranian missile and drone attacks, but have now begun to reopen with heavily restricted air traffic.

Those eligible for the government flights have been asked to pay for their seat.

Sir Keir Starmer has announced further Government-chartered flights, with another expected to leave Oman on Thursday.

British Airways said it will run a fourth daily flight from Muscat to London Heathrow - a route it does not usually serve - departing at 10.30pm on Saturday, in addition to flights already scheduled over the next two days. 

People gather on the sides of a road as smoke rises in the background following an explosion in Tehran today

Qatar Airways announced it would operate 'a limited number of relief flights' to European cities on Thursday, but confirmed most flights would remain suspended due to the ongoing closure of Qatari airspace.

Services from Muscat would depart for London Heathrow as well as Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Another flight would depart from Saudi Arabia's capital city, Riyadh, to Frankfurt.

'Passengers are kindly requested not to proceed to the airport unless they have received an official notification from Qatar Airways for these flights,' the airline wrote in a statement on X.

British Airways has also organised a flight from Muscat to London Heathrow, which is due to depart today. BA does not normally serve Muscat as part of its schedule.

In a statement, BA said it had scheduled further flights from Muscat to Heathrow on Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7.  

But the airline added that all these flights were now fully booked, although BA said it could add additional services 'if we are able to'.

'We are constantly reviewing the situation and will continue to do everything we can to support our customers and colleagues in the region and remain in regular contact with them,' added BA. 

More than 2,000 people arrived on flights from the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, with a total of 4,000 coming home from five Middle Eastern nations.

Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer said eight planes had arrived from the Gulf country and more were expected to land throughout Thursday.

Frightened holidaymakers and British nationals scramble for flights home, with some families paying up to £100,000 for private jets to escape the war-shaken Gulf state. Pictured: Dubai airport this week

Mr Falconer told MPs: 'Over 2,000 people have arrived in the UK on eight flights from the UAE yesterday. That includes transit passengers and vulnerable people identified through our consular system. We are expecting a further 10 flights today.'

He added British nationals in Oman will be contacted about further flights out of  Muscat 'as they become available'.

He told the Commons today: 'Following close engagement with Government, British Airways have laid on new flights to Muscat which we anticipate flying every day.

'We are grateful to British Airways for their efforts. We are also providing UK-supported charter flights out of Muscat.

'The first of these was delayed yesterday evening due to technical issues at the airport but is scheduled to depart imminently, with further flights planned in the coming days.

'British nationals in Oman will be contacted about these as they become available.'

And cruise operator MSC Cruises, which is responsible for vessel MSC, has launched its own repatriation flights for stranded passengers.

A spokesperson said: 'MSC Cruises has been working on the safest and quickest way to repatriate our guests and has taken decisive action to accelerate this by launching a dedicated flight operation that currently includes five charter flights with the first flight planned to depart today, Thursday 5th March. 

'These flights would see close to 1,000 guests leave the region by Saturday.

'In parallel, MSC Cruises is pursuing every available pathway for the remaining guests - including commercial flights, further charter options and coordinated government-assisted solutions.'

Spain and Austria did successfully get trapped citizens out of the Middle East last night. 

Spanish nationals boarded a military repatriation flight at an unknown location in Oman on Wednesday. 

Yesterday, Austria's Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger also welcomed passengers for the arrival of a charter plane carrying Austrian nationals evacuated from Muscat at Vienna International Airport. 

It comes after the US and Israel intensified their bombing attacks against Iran's military and security apparatus.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's Government has continued to defend the status of the special relationship with the US after a series of attacks from President Donald Trump.

And Cyprus said that a British presence is 'the least we expect' as a warship being readied to protect the British base there is not set to sail until next week.

Sir Keir has told MPs the special relationship with Washington will endure after the US president lashed out at his initial refusal to allow British bases to be used for raids against Iran.

After Mr Trump said the Prime Minister was 'not Winston Churchill', Sir Keir said the bond with the US was not about 'hanging on to President Trump's latest words'.

He defended his decisions about the use of UK bases, saying the country needs to act 'with clarity, with purpose, and with a cool head'.

In response to Iran's retaliatory actions, Sir Keir has given the US permission to use British bases for the limited purpose of attacking missile launchers and infrastructure, but RAF jets have not been involved in striking Iran.

The Government has also been criticised for failing to have enough military assets in the Middle East region after RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was targeted by a drone. 

Defence Minister John Healey is in Cyprus today, and a brief new security alert was issued on Thursday morning at the RAF base. 

Air defence destroyer HMS Dragon will be sent to the eastern Mediterranean to help protect Cyprus, but the Type 45 warship is not expected to sail until next week.

Sir Keir said Wildcat helicopters with anti-drone capabilities would be on the Mediterranean island this week.

He insisted action had been taken in response to rising tensions in the region before the war broke out.

The Cypriot high commissioner to the UK, Kyriacos Kouros, said the deployment of HMS Dragon was welcome but noted it would take 'more than a week' to arrive.

Asked if he thought the UK had acted with sufficient urgency to protect those people who are living in and around the bases, he told Sky News: 'Already we have the presence of Greek forces on the island. Two frigates arrived, four aircraft arrived, all of them with abilities to combat drones.

'The French are coming. So... the least we expect is the Britons to also be present since, as I said, we are not only defending Cypriots on the island.'

France has sent its flagship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle to the region, accompanied by its air wing, and its escorting frigates in response to the strike on RAF Akrotiri.

Other nations, including Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, have also announced plans to deploy assets to protect the island.