Desert drive, four continents: US doctor’s $10,000, 60-hour escape from Qatar after India trip

Dubai: Stranded in Doha after Middle East airspace shut down during the escalating Iran conflict, a US doctor undertook a desperate 60-hour escape across four continents — a journey involving a desert drive to Saudi Arabia, improvised flights and nearly $10,000 in costs before he finally reached home in Louisiana.

Dr. Jay Miller’s ordeal began on February 28 when his Qatar Airways flight to Dallas abruptly turned back shortly after departing Doha, The New York Times reported.

Israel and the United States had launched strikes on Iran, triggering retaliation from Tehran with missiles and drones across the region. As tensions escalated, several Middle Eastern countries — including Qatar — closed their airspace and cancelled flights, leaving tens of thousands of travellers stranded.

Back in Doha, Miller heard explosions powerful enough to shake the windows of his hotel room.

“It was one of those moments when you tell your spouse you love them,” he said.

The 45-year-old pulmonary and critical care specialist had been returning early from a family vacation in India so he could get back to his patients in Louisiana. His wife, Swathi Narra, and their five-year-old daughter, Devi, had stayed behind in India after the family spent time spotting wild leopards and visiting the village where Narra’s late father grew up.

Instead of heading home, Miller found himself stuck in Doha for five tense nights as the conflict spread across the region.

Guests at the Andaz Doha hotel gathered nervously in the lobby, some too afraid to return to rooms on higher floors. Miller tried repeatedly to contact the US State Department and even reached out to politicians in Louisiana, but help never materialised.

By Wednesday, after the State Department warned travellers not to rely on evacuation assistance, Miller decided he had to find his own way out.

‘The room was shaking’: Doctor recounts terrifying hours in Doha

• “It’s getting real close, the room is shaking… I don’t know if I’m going to make it out of this. And I love you so much.”

• — Dr. Jay Miller describing a phone call to his wife and daughter

• “Five or six missiles came in quick succession. The whole place cleared out in seconds.”

• “Fear… people hadn’t slept, there was yelling in the hotel lobby, crying and frantic phone calls.”

• “I was running down a stairwell with other people trying to get to the basement to hide.”

• “I’m a guy just like everybody else in New Orleans… This is absolutely terrifying.”

• “The sooner we can end violence anywhere, it would be a good thing.”

• (Source: WDSU interview with Dr. Jay Miller)

Working frantically with his wife — still in India — he searched for flights leaving anywhere outside the Middle East.

Doha airport remained shut. But flights were still departing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, nearly nine hours away by road.

The plan sounded extreme. But it was his best chance.

“We felt we had to move on our own,” Miller said. “There was no time to wait.”

$3,000 for car journeys

A hotel-arranged driver took him to the Saudi border, where another driver helped him through visa and customs checkpoints before a third drove him across the desert to Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. The car journeys alone cost about $3,000.

During the long drive, Miller said his anxiety surged every time the vehicle approached routine checkpoints.

His emotions were a mix of “desperation, fear and anxiety to just flee and get out”.

When he reached Riyadh airport late Thursday, the terminal was eerily quiet. Many flights — to destinations including Abu Dhabi, Delhi, Hong Kong and Colombo — had been cancelled.

He waited nervously in a nearly empty lounge for his 3:40am Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa.

The aircraft was packed. He barely slept.

After landing early Friday, Miller had a 15-hour layover in Ethiopia. Though exhausted, he briefly left the airport to visit the National Museum of Ethiopia, home to the famous 3.2-million-year-old skeleton known as Lucy.

A self-described admirer of Charles Darwin, he joked that he could not miss the chance to see “my one true love”.

He also grabbed a strong Ethiopian coffee before returning to the airport for the next leg of his journey.

Last leg

From Addis Ababa, Miller boarded a Chicago-bound flight that stopped briefly in Rome for refuelling before continuing across the Atlantic.

After landing at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Saturday morning — about a week after his original flight turned back midair — he still had to clear customs and catch a final connection to New Orleans.

Even that last leg nearly went wrong when the aircraft struck a baggage cart while pushing back from the gate. But the plane eventually departed and landed in New Orleans just after 2pm.

More than 60 hours after fleeing Qatar, Miller finally stepped into his home in Louisiana.

About an hour later, he went straight to bed, sleeping for 16 uninterrupted hours.

That evening, the US State Department finally returned his call.

But by then, Miller was already home — and fast asleep, The New York Times reported.