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That was understandable. The Americans had been divided by their captors into at least two groups for transportation to the airport in buses with blackened windows. The Americans then were run through a gauntlet of chanting militants. While some hostages thought the dozens of militants forming a corridor to shout "Death to America!" at them were just performing for propaganda effect, others were genuinely frightened and reported that they had been kicked and shoved during their last steps on Iranian soil.
Once inside the white airliner, the Americans waited another 25 minutes. The delay, some were told, was to complete the paper processing that would prove that all were aboard. Each had to sign a passenger list. Actually, the Algerian crew at the first plane's controls was not permitted to roll the craft down the runway until 12:33 p.m., Washington time —some five hours after everything had seemed set for release and just eleven minutes after the Inauguration ceremony had ended on the Capitol's West Front.
Carter and Mondale were heading for Andrews Air Force Base in a limousine when Sick told them that the Americans had made a "safe departure." The two highest officials of the just-retired Administration looked at each other in relief as tears trickled down their cheeks. In what was meant as a farewell review of troops at Andrews, Carter listened to his final 21-gun salute, then warmly embraced Anita Schaefer, wife of the senior military officer among the hostages, Air Force Colonel Thomas E. Schaefer. "Mr. President, I hope some day you'll meet my husband," she said. "Tom is in the air now," replied Carter. "I'll be with him tomorrow, and I'll tell him you love him." Both sobbed softly as they hugged again.
As Carter boarded Air Force One, redubbed SAM 27000 (Special Air Mission) to return to Plains, champagne corks popped aboard the Air Algerie 727, which was headed west over Iran. Now the Americans were all together for the first time since their imprisonment. They embraced emotionally. They excitedly roamed the plane's aisle, comparing experiences in captivity and wondering what had been happening in the outside world during those 14½ months.
In Washington, where it was 1:50 p.m. when the jet cleared Iranian airspace, the State Department began informing the families that the hostages were free at last. Carter quickly got the word too, and his airborne party, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Hamilton Jordan, Jody Powell, Jack Watson and Stuart Eizenstat, struggled with laughter and tears at the same time. Phil Wise rushed into the plane's press section to paraphrase a Martin Luther King Jr. line that applied aptly to both the Carter Administration officials and the hostages: "We're free, we're free; thank God almighty, we're free at last."
Arriving in Plains, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter walked through a chill drizzle as some 3,500 Georgians shouted a welcome. Pale and tired, the two nevertheless smiled happily. Carter clambered atop a flatbed truck and announced that every one of the 52 was alive, was well, and was free. Amid cheers and tears, Carter wiped away a few of his own, before declaring: "They are hostages no more, they are prisoners no more, and they are coming back to this land we all love."