Five crew members of MT Stolt Valor return home

MUMBAI: Five crew members of the hijacked ship MT Stolt Valor on Monday arrived in the city after spending close to two months as hostages in a Somalian port.

The crew members arrived from Muscat around 5am and were greeted by their relatives at the city's International airport here.

"I am just happy to be back. Words cannot express how I feel," one of the crew members said at the airport.

The vessel, which had 18 Indians on board, was hijacked in September off the Somalia coast.

The vessel, carrying a cargo of 23,818 tonnes of oil products, was hijacked from the designated safety corridor despite keeping the vessel close to the northern limit of the corridor, the farthest from the Somalian coast.

The ship was released on November 16 following negotiations between the pirates and the ship owners.