Capt. Phillips Returns to Land

Arrives in Kenya where plane will take him home
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 16, 2009 5:37 AM CDT
Capt. Phillips Returns to Land
USS Bainbridge enters the harbor at Mombasa, Kenya, today, shadowed by a police boat, foreground, flying the Kenyan flag.    (SAYYID AZIM)

The US sea captain held hostage for five days by Somali pirates reached land today, with the destroyer that rescued him docking to the strains of "Sweet Home Alabama," hours after his crew reunited with their families back home. Capt. Richard Phillips arrived in Mombasa harbor aboard the USS Bainbridge, which blared out the Lynyrd Skynyrd hit and hoisted the US flag as it arrived.

A charter plane was on standby to whisk Phillips home to his wife and two children in Vermont, said a security official at Mombasa airport. “We're just so thankful that things have turned out the way they have,” said Phillips’ mother-in-law. (More Richard Phillips stories.)

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