UPDATED 11:45 a.m. July 17: The couple has arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. tomorrow.
A Decatur couple taking a long-delayed honeymoon is stranded in Istanbul following an attempted military coup there on Friday that prompted the F.A.A. to ban flights entering the U.S. from Turkey.
Meaghan Flood, 42, and Carl Newton, 45, married three years ago but never took their dream honeymoon to Italy. A recent offer of cheap flights on Turkish Airlines provided the perfect opportunity. All they had to do was spend their first and last nights in Turkey.
The couple was so enchanted with Istanbul, they left Italy a day early to spend more time there. But they got more than they bargained for when they found themselves under martial law.
“We’d had this whirlwind eight-hour day with a UNESCO guide touring the old part of the city and some of the historical sites,” said Flood, who works in marketing for Munich Re, a German-based insurance company. “After dinner at the hotel, we went upstairs and I grabbed my phone to check social media and people were saying, ‘Is everything OK? Are you guys all right?’ I told Carl, ‘Cut on CNN!’ So we turned on CNN in our hotel room and watched it until it went off the air.”
The couple had noticed no unusual military activity as they’d toured the city that day. But that evening when they returned to their hotel room overlooking the Bosphorus River Bridge, where members of the coup surrendered early Saturday morning, they heard two loud explosions, gunfire and airplanes flying perilously low.
Saturday morning they took a taxi to the airport for their regularly scheduled flight home.
“We (raced) to the airport,” said Flood. “The only traffic we saw were cabs. There were no obstructions. Once we got to the airport, that’s where the traffic stopped and cars were honking. People were getting out of their cars and walking to the airport. We were being handed Turkish flags.”
Flood said the atmosphere appeared celebratory.
“Every building is draped with massive Turkish flags,” she said
The couple waited at the airport all day. Flood said she saw four flights take off, but none were bound for the U.S., so Turkish Airlines put the couple, along with other stranded travelers, in a hotel Saturday night. What happens next is anyone’s guess, says Flood.
“The Turkish Airlines’ hands are tied right now,” she said. “If the U.S. won’t allow us back into the U.S., then there’s not much we can do.”
The couple has kept in good spirits during the ordeal, streaming video on Facebook Live about their experience and bantering with friends on social media.
“If nothing else, at our 50th wedding anniversary, we have one hell of a story to tell,” said Flood.
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