Kern County Teacher Freed by Hijackers

A special education teacher known for her love of foreign travel was among 155 people released Friday after eight harrowing days aboard a hijacked Indian Air jetliner.

Jeanne Moore, believed to be the only American on board, was in good health after arriving in New Delhi, India, with the other hostages, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Corwin said. Corwin couldn’t confirm where Moore was staying.

Moore’s son Jim, a Bakersfield police officer, left for India on Friday when he learned of his mother’s release.

“He’s on his way over there to pick her up,” police Capt. Brad Wahl told the Bakersfield Californian newspaper Friday. “We were all pulling for him and doing what we could, which in something of this magnitude isn’t much of anything except prayers.”

Moore, an infant development program teacher who has taught in Kern County schools for 27 years, was described by co-workers as a dedicated teacher who enjoys vacationing in far-flung locations.

“She had special training to deal with crisis situations in special education. I’m not sure how that would equip her for something like this, but I’m very confident that if anyone could handle a tough situation and stay cool, she could,” said Jennifer Faulk, a speech pathologist at the Claude W. Richardson Child Development Center where Moore works.

The plane was headed from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi on Christmas Eve when it was hijacked by five Muslim militants. The jet hopped from airport to airport in southwestern Asia until it landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the following day.

The last day was the most traumatic, as the hijackers kept telling the hostages they had a bomb on board and would blow up the plane, passenger Rajinder Arora said. Earlier, one passenger, an Indian man returning from his honeymoon, was stabbed to death by a hijacker.

The Indian government agreed to release three prisoners in exchange for the passengers and crew early Friday.

The hijackers, who were allowed to leave, sped off in waiting cars with two Islamic militants and a Muslim cleric and were given 10 hours to find freedom.