Freed Hijacking Victim Returns to California

A Bakersfield teacher who was among 155 people held hostage for eight days aboard a hijacked Indian Air jetliner landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday for a private reunion with her family.

Jeanne Moore, 53, the only American on the hijacked plane, arrived shortly after noon at the United Airlines terminal. She avoided the waiting news media and was driven to an unknown location.

“We may have a small party; we may go out to dinner. We may just go and hide and deal with all this attention later,” said Ruth Welch, Moore’s younger sister.

Moore’s daughter, Lisa Salas, and parents, Harold and Marie Redding, were astounded by the mobs of reporters and photographers who assembled at the airport and gathered outside the Redding home on a narrow, leafy street in Burbank.

“We never thought this many people would be interested,” said 86-year-old Harold Redding, a retired truck driver.

Salas--unnerved by the airport crowd that prompted her mother to duck an immediate family reunion at the terminal--held tightly onto her son Zachary, 5.

“I need you, buddy,” she told him. “I need you to hold my hand.”

Moore’s family had seen television reports Christmas Day about the hijacking but didn’t learn until later that she was one of the hostages.

“How can you describe the worry we felt?” asked 85-year-old Marie Redding. “You spend your whole life trying to protect your children, even when they’re older. Imagine how helpless we felt.”

But Moore’s relatives said they had been comforted by the belief that if anyone could hold up during the ordeal, she could.

“Jeanne’s always been the hardy one, independent, strong and strong-willed,” Welch said. “If she was allowed to talk to the other passengers, I know she would have been calming them.”

“Jeanne’s a coper,” her father said.

Moore, who teaches children with developmental problems, won’t be daunted by her nightmarish trip to Asia, her family said.

“Traveling is one of her true loves,” her sister said. “She’ll want to get right back out there. This isn’t going to stop her.”

Five terrorists seized the jetliner Christmas Eve after it took off from Nepal, directing the plane on a wild journey across South Asia and the Mideast before landing in Afghanistan on Christmas Day.

The hijackers made a number of demands--at one time asking for $200 million and the release of 36 jailed guerrillas. But in the end, after killing one hostage, they freed the rest upon winning the release of two Islamic militants and a Muslim cleric.

After her eight days as a hostage, Moore’s health was a concern, although officials said she appeared well and in good spirits when she arrived at LAX.

She had told her parents during a brief phone call after her release that she contracted pneumonia while a hostage. When released, she was taken from the Indian Air plane in a wheelchair.

The hijacked passengers and crew were flown to New Delhi, where they were welcomed by thousands of weeping, cheering friends and relatives.

Moore’s father said they did not discuss details of her ordeal during the phone call from the U.S. Embassy in India because he was concerned that the call was being monitored.

Moore’s son--Jim Moore, a Bakersfield policeman--flew to India to accompany her home.

Times correspondent Richard Chon in Bakersfield contributed to this story.