The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Emotional return for sea cadet
Shipping: Ruaridh with family after long ordeal
A Highland sea cadet enjoyed an emotional reunion with his family after spending a month stranded in the Indian Ocean.
Ruaridh Hanna flew into Inverness Airport yesterday morning.
The 22-year-old from Beauly has been stuck on the Hanjin Lousiana with three other Scottish cadets for the last month.
A Highland sea cadet enjoyed an emotional reunion with his family after spending a month stranded in the Indian Ocean.
Ruaridh Hanna flew into Inverness Airport yesterday morning.
The 22- year- old from Beauly has been stuck on the Hanjin Lousiana with three other Scottish cadets for the last month after its parent company went into receivership.
The ship was finally allowed into Singapore on Wednesday, beginning a whirlwind trip to the High-lands via Heathrow.
The Merchant Navy deck officer cadet was due home early in September – and his mother Rho na Mac Lennan said after some “tiny flickers of hope” he might make it ashore failed she feared that it might be months before she saw her son again.
Last night the family were planning a home coming celebration.
Mr Hanna said: “It was absolutely great to see my family and there was this tidal wave of interest from the press. It was completely unexpected.
“With this sort of industry you’ve got to expect that at certain times you’re not going to get home when you want to be home. But for a situation like this to happen and for there not to beany contingency plans of any sort or, to be honest, for the companies involved with this to not provide any sort of any real useful information to us, that isn’t something we were expecting.”
He added: “The prospect was that we could have been there for months and the companies didn’t seem to be telling us much or trying to do much to get us home.”
Mr Hanna is a student with Clyde Marine Training at the City of Glasgow College.
He is due to go back to sea within five weeks – but is now planning to catchup with the latest series of Game of Thrones and his beloved Ross County.
Sister Naiomi, 20, said the first thing she told her brother was that he needed a haircut.
His mother Rhona, 53, said: “It was amazing to see him.
“We’ve had so many little flickers of false hope over the last month that they were going to get home.
“And now to see him coming out the door was just amazing.
“It really was real and was happening. You don’t want to get your hopes up too much.”
Highland MP Drew Hendry has been involved in negotiations to the cadet and his colleagues home and was at Inverness Airport to meet Mr Hanna yesterday.
He said: “Ruaridh should have been back a month ago so I’m delighted he is back in Inverness today where he should have been.
“It’s not good enough that he’s been held on board, effectively against his will, for such a period of time and he has been really courageous throughout this.”
“The prospect was that we could have been there for months”