As cloud roil the skies above Washington's Reagan National Airport, Trina Robertson was crossing her fingers that her flight to Dallas wasn't delayed yet again.

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The flight from Abu Dhabi to London is eight hours long, crossing a distance of about 3, 500 miles (5, 600 km), as the crow flies.

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This weekly, commercial flight linking Tehran and Caracas stops in Damascus, Syria, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

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