Ryan Blackmon was on his way home, in the air leaving Doha, when the U.S. began operations in Iran. The airline turned the plane around and his two-week ordeal began

DALLAS — Ryan Blackmon was in the air, two hours into his flight leaving Doha, when a flight attendant told him they were turning the plane around. 

It was Feb. 28. The U.S. attacks on Iran were underway. Saudi Arabian air space was now closed. His business trip home to Frisco from India, scheduled to last seven days, would turn into 17 days before he could find safe passage out of the Middle East.

“It was a disconcerting feeling, initially,” Blackmon told WFAA of the travel nightmare after he was greeted Monday night at DFW Airport by his wife, the two oldest of their three children and their extended family.

“I’m so happy you’re home. We missed you,” his wife Whitney Blackmon told him as they embraced.

“There were definitely some anxiety-inducing moments,” Whitney Blackmon told us of the extended wait to welcome her husband home.

Ryan Blackmon would spend several days stuck in Doha before a bus trip could be arranged for an 8-hour journey to a new flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But even that portion of the journey didn’t go off without problems: a bus crash two hours away from arriving in Riyadh.

“Going about 50-miles an hour just ran straight into the back of a semi truck,” he said in a video diary he provided to ABC News. 

The bus driver was injured. Blackmon was among eight Americans who would eventually reach Riyadh on another bus.

“It was a scary moment. But I was able to reach out to the embassy and within 30 seconds I had someone on the phone with me to help guide us through the situation,” he said.

“It’s Dadda,” Whitney Blackmon said as her husband exited the international arrivals doors at DFW Monday night. His two oldest children, Camden and Beckham ran and jumped into his arms.

“I feel a sense of relief right now,” Blackmon said. He is a consultant and works with accounting firms in India. He says he makes this trip about a half dozen times each year.

“I do feel that as I separate myself from the experience, probably a little bit more fear will set back in, just what could have happened. But right now I feel incredibly thankful and safe to be back home,” he said.

Blackmon says he is grateful for the U.S. Embassies in Doha and Riyadh that helped get him home. But, given that his seven-day trip turned into 17, he’s probably staying put in Frisco for a bit.

“And it’s going to be a long time I think before I’m able to come back to DFW to make an international trip, but I’m not sad about that. I’m happy to be home and keep my feet here on Texas soil for a little while,” he said.

Safe on Texas soil while trying not to think of what might have been, and continues to happen, on foreign soil half a world away.