‘Scared’ Teen-Agers End Soviet Tour : Travel: The group was rushed to Leningrad airport for return to L.A. after tanks were seen in streets.

A frightened group of American teen-agers and their adult chaperon spilled off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, eager to share stories of their harrowing journey from the Soviet Union, where only hours before their departure a coup had ousted President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“Oh my God, I was so scared,” said Tammy Mason, 18, as she embraced her mother, Cindi, at the airport. “There were tanks rolling down the streets and riots. I was scared I would not get out of there.”

Tammy Mason said she was sitting in a Leningrad flat talking to her host “sister” Nadia Baviona about 10:30 a.m. Monday when she heard the news of Gorbachev’s overthrow.

“The next thing I know, her mother ran out real fast and said, ‘Oh, my God, Gorbachev isn’t president any more,’ ” Tammy Mason said. “I was terrified.”

The 16 Santa Clarita teen-agers and their chaperon were greeted at the airport Tuesday by worried relatives and friends who carried balloons and welcome-home signs.

“After watching the news we got very concerned,” Cindi Mason said. “But when we got the phone call that they had reached Helsinki, we were quite relieved.”

The tour group had left for the Soviet Union on July 30 as part of a youth exchange program and was near the end of its visit when the coup occurred early Monday morning. They were scheduled to leave Monday afternoon but were hurried to the Leningrad airport earlier by their Russian friends after news of the coup spread.

En route to the airport, Tammy Mason said, the Bavionas told her to remove her jacket and shove it under the seat because it bore an American flag.

“Tanks were going down the street, and all these people were heading towards the square,” she said. “The soldiers were going there also because they thought there was going to be violence.”

At the airport, there were tearful farewells.

“The last thing they said was, ‘It’s the last day for you but the beginning for us,’ ” she said. “I’ll never forget that as long as I live.”

Jerry Kennedy Jr., 18, another student on the trip, said he became concerned when he heard the government had imposed a 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew Monday.

“Just a few days before, we had been walking in the streets until 3 a.m. looking at drawbridges,” he said. “When we were leaving, there were all these families out in the street.”

His mother, Anne Kennedy, said that before the trip “we kept saying what a terrific chance this trip would be for these kids.”

“I think, you can (multiply) that by about 10. It’s incredible.”