Not true. The Sultan drew a pistol to shoot his son Qaboos but only succeeded in shooting himself in the foot. He was quickly bundled into the waiting casevac Ardet Argosy at Salalah with full medical team on board which included a Wg Cdr surgeon and flown immediately up to Muharraq. Then a Britannia to Akrotiri followed by a VC-10 to Lyneham for transfer to Wroughton hospital. He then spent the rest of his life in a London hotel while his son, Sultan Qaboos, got on with dragging the country out of the 14th century. In my opinion, he did a bloody good job of it.