Dr. Jay Miller’s once-in-a-lifetime family vacation to India took an unexpected twist on Feb. 28 when his Qatar Airways flight to Dallas made a U-turn about an hour after taking off from Doha, Qatar.

杰伊·米勒医生原本千载难逢的全家赴印度度假之旅在2月28日出现了意想不到的转折——当时他乘坐的卡塔尔航空飞往达拉斯的航班在从卡塔尔多哈起飞约一小时后突然掉头返航。

Israel and the United States had attacked Iran, which was launching rockets and drones in retaliation. Countries across the Middle East, including Qatar, had closed their airspace and canceled flights, stranding tens of thousands of travelers.

以色列和美国对伊朗发动袭击，而伊朗则以火箭和无人机进行报复。包括卡塔尔在内的多个中东国家关闭了领空并取消航班，数以万计的旅客因此滞留。

Back on the ground in Doha, Dr. Miller heard explosions so powerful that his hotel room’s windows shook.

回到多哈地面后，米勒医生听到了剧烈的爆炸声，他酒店房间的窗户都在震动。

“It was one of the moments when you tell your spouse you love them, which I did,” he said.

“那是一种会让你对配偶说‘我爱你’的时刻——我确实这么说了，”他说。

Dr. Miller, a 45-year-old pulmonary and critical care specialist, had left India a week earlier than his wife, Swathi Narra, and 5-year-old daughter, Devi, to return to his patients. It was Devi’s first trip to the country, and the family had seen wild leopards and visited the village where Swathi’s deceased father grew up.

45岁的米勒医生是一名肺病与重症监护专家。因为有病人要照顾，他比妻子斯瓦蒂·纳拉和五岁的女儿德维提前一周离开印度。那是德维第一次到印度旅行，一家人看到了野生豹子，还去了斯瓦蒂已故父亲成长的村子。

Now, he would be spending the next five nights alone in Doha on an emotional roller coaster, trying to distract himself by cautiously exploring the city. Some of his fellow guests at the Andaz Doha, too afraid even to go to their rooms on higher floors, sheltered in the hotel lobby all day.

现在，他将在多哈独自度过接下来的五个夜晚，情绪像坐过山车一样起伏，只能小心翼翼地在城里逛逛，试图分散注意力。一同住在多哈安达仕酒店的一些住客也和他一样，因为太害怕，甚至不敢回到高楼层的房间，整天呆在酒店大堂里。

He tried calling the U.S. State Department, filling out forms, and reaching out to Louisiana politicians — all fruitless. By Wednesday, a day after the State Department announced that travelers should not rely on the U.S. government to evacuate them, he decided to escape the region any way he could.

他尝试给美国国务院打电话、填写各种表格、联系路易斯安那州的政客——全都徒劳无功。到周三，也就是国务院宣布旅客不应指望美国政府会将他们撤离的第二天，他决定要不惜一切代价离开这个地区。

He and Swathi, still in India, furiously searched for flights that would get him anywhere outside the Middle East. The Doha airport was still closed, and flight options were scarce. Some jets were departing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a roughly nine-hour drive away. Dr. Miller tried his luck.

他和仍在印度的斯瓦蒂疯狂地搜索能让他前往中东以外任何地方的航班。多哈机场仍然关闭，航班选择极为有限。有些航班从沙特阿拉伯的利雅得起飞，到那里大约有九个小时的车程。米勒医生决定碰碰运气。

He found a spot on a flight from Riyadh to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, selecting it because the departure time was a good fit given the long overland journey. He quickly applied online for visas to the two countries.

他弄到了一张从利雅得飞往埃塞俄比亚亚的斯亚贝巴的机票，选择这个航班是因为考虑到漫长的陆路旅程，它的起飞时间很合适。他迅速在网上申请了这两个国家的签证。

“We felt we had to move on our own. There was not time or the circumstances to wait for someone,” he said, adding that an itinerary that initially felt “so crazy and far-fetched” no longer was.

他说，“我们觉得只能靠自己行动了。没有时间，也没有条件再等待别人来帮忙”，并补充道，一开始看起来“疯狂而难以想象”的行程，现在变得不再那么不可思议。

He hired a hotel-recommended driver to take him to the border with Saudi Arabia, then had to find another to get him through the visa and customs checkpoints, and a third to drive him from the border to King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. In all, the car services cost about $3,000.

他雇了酒店推荐的司机送他到沙特边境，然后必须另找一位司机带他通过签证和海关检查站，再找第三位司机把他从边境送到利雅得的哈立德国王国际机场。总共下来，车费约3000美元。

During a phone interview as the car sped across the Saudi desert, Dr. Miller said that his anxiety spiked each time the vehicle passed through routine checkpoints. His overwhelming emotions were “desperation and fear and anxiety to just flee and get out.”

在汽车穿越沙特沙漠时，接受电话采访的米勒医生说，每当车辆通过例行检查站，他的焦虑都会骤然上升。他当时排山倒海的情绪就是：“绝望、恐惧和焦虑，只想赶紧逃离这里。”

When he arrived at the airport in Riyadh on Thursday evening, the terminal was eerily quiet, with most of the departures — to places like Abu Dhabi, Delhi, Hong Kong and Colombo, Sri Lanka — canceled. Sitting in an empty airline lounge, he nervously awaited his 3:40 a.m. flight to Addis Ababa.

周四晚上，当他抵达利雅得机场时，航站楼内异常冷清，大多数前往阿布扎比、德里、香港和斯里兰卡科伦坡等地的航班都被取消了。坐在空荡荡的航空公司贵宾休息室里，他紧张地等待着凌晨3点40分飞往亚的斯亚贝巴的航班。

That flight, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, was packed. He barely slept a wink.

这趟由埃塞俄比亚航空运营的航班座无虚席。他几乎一夜未合眼。

Ethiopia had not been on Dr. Miller’s travel wish list before this trip.

在这次旅行之前，埃塞俄比亚从未出现在米勒医生的旅行愿望清单上。

But he had 15 hours to fill in Addis Ababa after his flight landed at 6:40 a.m. on Friday, and he didn’t feel like spending them at the airport. Though he was running on empty, he seized the chance to visit the National Museum of Ethiopia, home to the skeleton of Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old hominin that was discovered in the country in 1974. As a self-described die-hard disciple of Charles Darwin, Dr. Miller joked by text message that there was no way he’d miss the chance to see “my one true love.”

不过，他的航班在周五早上6点40分抵达亚的斯亚贝巴后，他还有15个小时需要打发，他并不想一直留在机场里。尽管已经筋疲力尽，他还是抓住机会参观了埃塞俄比亚国家博物馆。那里收藏着露西的骨骼——这是一具1974年在埃塞俄比亚发现、距今320万年的古人类化石。作为一个自称达尔文铁杆信徒的人，米勒医生在短信中开玩笑说，他绝不会错过见到“我唯一真正挚爱”的机会。

He also sought out a strong cup of coffee, a beverage Ethiopia is famous for.

他还去找了一杯浓咖啡，这是埃塞俄比亚闻名于世的特产。

He arrived back at the airport about three hours ahead of his 10:40 p.m. departure, but it still turned out to be a close call. To keep him from missing his flight, airport employees whisked him to the front of the security line. His passport was checked five times.

他在晚上10点40分航班起飞前三个小时回到机场，但时间仍然十分紧张。为了避免误机，机场工作人员把他直接带到安检队伍最前面。他的护照被检查了五次。

He still had many grueling miles to go. His Chicago-bound Ethiopian Airways flight made a refueling stop in Rome six and a half hours later, but passengers did not disembark. Then, with its tanks filled, it took off for Chicago, where it landed shortly before 8 a.m. on Saturday, about a full week after his first flight made its midair U-turn.

他前面还有漫长而煎熬的路程。他乘坐的这架飞往芝加哥的埃塞俄比亚航空航班在六半小时后经停罗马加油，但乘客并未下机。随后，加满油的飞机起飞前往芝加哥，于周六早上快8点时降落，此时距离他第一趟航班在空中掉头已过去差不多整整一周。

At O’Hare International Airport, he faced a potential gantlet passing through U.S. customs and immigration, which has been affected by the ongoing shutdown in Department of Homeland Security funding. Even without Global Entry, an expedited entry program the government suspended because of the shutdown, the line moved at a steady clip. Dr. Miller collected his checked bag and waited three hours for his next departure, a United Airlines flight to New Orleans.

在芝加哥奥黑尔国际机场，他不得不面对美国海关和移民局的关卡考验。由于国土安全部资金持续中断，这一流程也受到影响。即使没有使用全球快速通关计划——这个原本可以快速通关的项目因为政府停摆而暂停——队伍仍以稳速向前移动。米勒医生取回托运行李，然后又等待了三个小时，搭乘下一趟飞往新奥尔良的美联航航班。

Despite being in the homestretch, he almost didn’t take off. Backing out from the gate at O’Hare, the plane struck a baggage cart. But the flight was still able to depart, and it landed in New Orleans a little after 2 p.m. on Saturday. It had been more than 60 hours since he fled Qatar, and in all, Dr. Miller estimated, the journey home cost almost $10,000.

尽管已接近旅程的尾声，他差点还是没能起飞。在奥黑尔机场退出登机口时，飞机撞上了一辆行李车。但航班仍得以起飞，并于周六下午两点多降落在新奥尔良。自他逃离卡塔尔以来，已经过去了60多个小时，米勒医生估计，这趟回家之旅总共花费了近1万美元。

About an hour later, he stepped into his house in the Marigny and cracked open a beer. That night, he slept 16 uninterrupted hours. The State Department finally called him back that evening, but he was fast asleep in his own bed. The call went to voice mail.

大约一个小时后，他回到了位于新奥尔良马里尼的家中，打开了一瓶啤酒。那天晚上，他一口气睡了16个小时。国务院终于在那天晚上给他回了电话，但他在自己床上睡得正香。电话转到了语音信箱。