John
11-16-2010, 09:41 PM
The retired couple, who were abducted as they sailed their yacht off the Seychelles, landed at Heathrow Airport on board a Virgin Atlantic flight from Nairobi.
They left the plane separately from other passengers and were met by a car on the runway.
The Chandlers were handed over to local officials in the Somali town of Adado after 388 days in captivity, before being flown to the capital Mogadishu and on to Nairobi in Kenya.
A ransom was reportedly paid to secure their release.
Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to Mr Chandler on Monday and declared their release "tremendous news".
The couple were snatched during a round-the-world sailing trip, when their 38ft yacht, the Lynn Rival, was stormed by armed men in October last year.
Mr Chandler was told on his release that his father had died in July.
The 60-year-old said: "We're fine. We are rather skinny and bony but we're fine.
"The worst time was when we had to abandon our home and boat... in the ocean."
His wife, 56, added: "Abandoning (our yacht) Lynn Rival when we were taken on board the container ship and brought eventually on shore was the worst time.
"Another time that was very traumatic was when they decided to separate us. We were really distraught, we were very frightened at that point.
"We refused to be separated and we were beaten as a result. That was very traumatic."
Reports have suggested the couple's ransom money came from a mixture of private investors and the Somali government.
But the British Government has quashed reports that part of the release money had come out of British aid paid to the African country's government.
A spokeswoman for the Department for International Development (DfID) said: "No part of the UK aid budget has been used to help secure the Chandlers' release, nor to benefit pirates.
"The British Government does not pay ransoms to hostage-takers."
In 2009/10 DfID gave more than £30m to Somalia which was was used for humanitarian relief, education and health programmes.
The Chandler family released a statement acknowledging the "inevitable questions" which would arise following the release.
Source - Yahoo News.
They left the plane separately from other passengers and were met by a car on the runway.
The Chandlers were handed over to local officials in the Somali town of Adado after 388 days in captivity, before being flown to the capital Mogadishu and on to Nairobi in Kenya.
A ransom was reportedly paid to secure their release.
Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to Mr Chandler on Monday and declared their release "tremendous news".
The couple were snatched during a round-the-world sailing trip, when their 38ft yacht, the Lynn Rival, was stormed by armed men in October last year.
Mr Chandler was told on his release that his father had died in July.
The 60-year-old said: "We're fine. We are rather skinny and bony but we're fine.
"The worst time was when we had to abandon our home and boat... in the ocean."
His wife, 56, added: "Abandoning (our yacht) Lynn Rival when we were taken on board the container ship and brought eventually on shore was the worst time.
"Another time that was very traumatic was when they decided to separate us. We were really distraught, we were very frightened at that point.
"We refused to be separated and we were beaten as a result. That was very traumatic."
Reports have suggested the couple's ransom money came from a mixture of private investors and the Somali government.
But the British Government has quashed reports that part of the release money had come out of British aid paid to the African country's government.
A spokeswoman for the Department for International Development (DfID) said: "No part of the UK aid budget has been used to help secure the Chandlers' release, nor to benefit pirates.
"The British Government does not pay ransoms to hostage-takers."
In 2009/10 DfID gave more than £30m to Somalia which was was used for humanitarian relief, education and health programmes.
The Chandler family released a statement acknowledging the "inevitable questions" which would arise following the release.
Source - Yahoo News.