ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MARYLAND // The saga of the American merchant seamen who clashed with Somali pirates on the high seas off Africa ended early today with a big "welcome home" banner and the warm embrace of families. A charter flight from Kenya brought the crew of the Maersk Alabama to Andrews Air Force Base, where they had a private reunion with their loved ones. Missing was the Alabama's skipper, who was still aboard the US Navy destroyer that had saved him and which still was chasing pirates off the east coast of Africa. The crewmen were greeted by several dozen family members who crowded onto the wet tarmac near the arriving plane, waving small flags in the unseasonably cool air.
The crewmen did not stop to talk with reporters and quickly entered the terminal with their families, where a reception area was set aside for their privacy. One week ago, pirates took over the Alabama briefly before Capt Richard Phillips surrendered himself in exchange for the safety of his 19-member crew. Capt Phillips was freed Sunday after five days of being held hostage in a lifeboat when US Navy SEAL snipers on the destroyer USS Bainbridge killed three of his captors.
The Alabama crew had scuffled with the pirates, wounding one of them with an ice pick, in taking back control of their ship. The bandits fled the ship with Capt Phillips as their captive, holding him in the lifeboat in a high-stakes standoff until the SEAL sharpshooters took action. The Bainbridge was diverted on Tuesday to chase pirates attacking a second US cargo ship, thereby delaying Capt Phillips' homecoming.
The cargo ship, the Liberty Sun, escaped after sustaining damage from automatic weapons fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Another chartered plane was waiting at the Mombasa airport for Phillips, a Kenyan airport official said. Capt Phillips' wife, Andrea, and two children were still at home in Vermont and did not know when or where they would meet him, said her mother, Catherine Coggio. Andrea Phillips, in a statement, celebrated the crew's imminent return and said she understood why her husband could not make it home with them.
"Like Richard, I appreciate that the US Navy is there to help other seafarers as well," she said. "The most important thing is that Richard is safe, and our family owes that to the Navy. I am immensely proud of Richard, the crew and everything they did to assure each other's safety." *AP
