This has been an ongoing story for the past two weeks, here in the UAE, and it has gotten lots of attention.

The 11-year-old English boy whose fear of flying is so intense that he cannot or will not fly.

And how will he get home to Somerset?

Well, first, his issues.

The kid, Joe Thompson, apparently flew regularly for years, but had trouble coming from England to the UAE, and now will not board a plane to return home with the rest of his family, who had been living in Al Ain.

We don’t quite say it, in The National, but it seems as if the kid may have been shouting/shrieking. Once, the crew asked to him to leave a plane scant minutes before departure. On another occasion, he was barred from boarding the plane at all.

And now they are stuck.

So, we’re back to … what do they do?

The kid’s father decided to take him overland, and then via ship, all the way back to England. That’s a bit tricky, at this moment in history. No one would want to drive through Syria, and probably not Iraq.

Their solution: A drive through Saudi Arabia to Egypt, a ship to southern Europe, trains up to the English Channel, and then back to England.

But the Saudis declined to issue a visa, and that slowed things.

However, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom stepped in, and Volkswagen stepped up, and now the kid will be driven home in a convoy of vehicles — with sea crossings involved, of course.

It has been an odd story. If it were my kid, I would suggest sedating him or her to the point that he was unconscious. Have him travel like a hospital patient.

I don’t minimize the fear, and a lot of us have been there, or somewhere on the spectrum. Adults cope with alcohol or sedatives or meditation. Or by not flying.

When the English family gets Joe home, we have to assume they will not commit to any overseas adventures which would require the 11-year-old to come along.

And how do we know him, here at the paper? As the Fear-of-Flying Boy. Of course.