KIEV, Feb. 13 - Twenty joyful but exhausted sailors stepped off a plane and into the arms of their loved ones Friday -- a happy ending to a four-month hijack drama off the coast of Somalia, The Associated Press reported.

Embracing sobbing wives and parents in the freezing cold outside Kiev's Boryspil Airport, the crew of the MV Faina -- 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and a Latvian -- recounted how they were crammed into a tiny room and haunted by the fear of never seeing their families again.