|
Sunshine as sailors fly home
05/04/2007 15:59 - (SA)
|
|
|
 |
|
| Some of the the 15 British service personnel released by Iran, board a military helicopter at London's Heathrow Airport. (Alastair Grant, AP) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
London - Warm sunshine and clear blue skies greeted 15 British naval personnel on Thursday as they touched down in London, back in uniform on home soil two weeks to the day after being seized in the Gulf.
At 12:02 (11:02 GMT), nearly 24 hours after hearing of their release, the 14 men and one woman stepped off a scheduled British Airways flight to Heathrow Airport.
On board the flight from Tehran the seven marines and eight sailors, including mother-of-one Faye Turney who initially became the face of the drama, were kept in business class, separated from hovering media.
On arrival in Heathrow, the team of Royal Marines and Royal Navy sailors were spared a high-profile arrival, in contrast to their very public detention over the last two weeks.
Instead of emerging to a welcome party of family members and friends among the Easter holiday crowds in arrivals, their Airbus plane taxied to the VIP suite normally reserved for royals, prime ministers and visiting dignitaries.
A small group of photographers and TV crews had been waiting since early morning "airside" of the barbed wire-topped wooden perimeter fence on the steps of the single-storey building.
Hovering helicopters
In the distance across the expanse of hazy tarmac and Heathrow's busy northern spur road, more TV news cameras lined up on the freshly-cut, striped lawns of an airport hotel.
Others perched on top of satellite broadcasting vans and even picnic tables for a better view, as lines of silvery jets glided down from the skies to the east and roared to a stop on the runway a short distance away.
Up in the air, helicopters chartered by TV news channels hovered above the Airbus as baggage handlers took off passengers' luggage and hoisted it onto trucks.
Then, after what seemed like an age, the marines and sailors suddenly emerged from the shadow of a giant British Airways 747 jet alongside, striding across the tarmac towards two waiting Royal Navy Sea King helicopters.
All of them had shed the Iranian suits and clothing given to them by their captors.
Instead of grey suits or a headscarf, the Marines, sleeves rolled down, were dressed in desert combat fatigues, while the sailors were in navy blue trousers and light blue shirts.
Popping flashbulbs
As armed police and other military personnel looked on, the 15 then placed their holdalls and bags on the ground, and stood in a line for a brief photo call, broad smiles across their faces.
If they said anything at all, it was lost in the roar of the khaki-coloured helicopters' rotor blades, which whirred noisily in the background.
Then, the flashbulbs still popping, they disappeared inside the aircraft, which eased upwards and flew off towards south-west England where the group will be debriefed.
- AFP
|
