Hijack Meant Agonizing Wait for 2 S.D. County Families

The family of Jerome Barczak dug in for another long, sleepless night at their San Diego home Sunday, sitting by the phone and monitoring televisions and radios as the civil engineer employed by General Dynamics remained a hostage in Beirut aboard the TWA jetliner that was hijacked Friday.

Thirty miles away, in Escondido, the family of Jose and Sylvia Delgado held a subdued celebration over a London broil dinner, relieved to learn that the retired couple would be returning home from Paris late today or Tuesday after being released by the Arab terrorists. The plane was commandeered shortly after it took off from Athens en route to Rome.

TWA’s Flight 847 was to have landed at Lindbergh Field Friday night, returning the Delgados home from a four-week vacation to Egypt and Greece and Barczak, who now works in Cairo, to his daughter, Diane’s, graduation from Mission Bay High School Tuesday night.

“Our first reaction was to scream with glee, but then we all got quiet again real quick,” said Daniel Delgado, an Escondido optometrist. “We realized that there were still a lot of people on that flight who were not yet home safe. Then we called the Barczaks and offered them whatever support we could. We won’t move away from our televisions until this whole thing is over.”

Lenore Barczak, Jerome’s sister, said four of the engineer’s five children, his ex-wife, Mary Ann Foglio, and numerous friends and well-wisher were maintaining the vigil that began when the family went to the San Diego airport Friday night to meet the TWA flight that never arrived here.

“It’s like nothing we’ve ever experienced--a nightmare like nothing you could ever imagine,” said Lenore, who had traveled to San Diego from Milwaukee for a weekend family reunion that never took place.

“We’re all eating constantly to hold up our strength and spirit, because there really isn’t much else we can do. The tension is unbearable, and not knowing when it will all end makes it that much worse.”

Barczak’s son, Michael, who told reporters his father had taught his family “to always be strong,” set up a sign reading “We’re staying strong, Dad,” at his living room desk. Friends of Foglio and the other Barczak children in the area (Diane, 17; James, 14; and Frank, 23) dropped by to offer support, and neighbors tied yellow ribbons on trees to show the family their hopes and prayers were with them.

“The support we’ve had has been just excellent,” said Lenore Barczak. “The neighbors, friends of the kids--we can’t properly describe just how much their kindness has meant to us. Diane’s graduation is still on, and we’re still staying very confident that he will be there for it--or be back shortly afterward. It’s that optimism that gets us through this when the crying starts.”

Daniel Delgado, while feeling a relief he said hoped the Barczaks would soon be able to share, said the hours of waiting for news about his parents “was the worst thing we’ve ever been through. Now, we’re just feeling exhausted, mixed with sweet relief.”

Sylvia Delgado had been one of the first 19 hostages freed when the hijackers released women and children after the plane’s first landing in Beirut late Friday; Jose was among three others, all elderly men, who were let go Saturday in Algiers

Sylvia, who retired clerk as a clerk at Miller School in Escondido, called the Delgado home in Escondido from Beirut shortly after her release. She was reunited in Paris Sunday afternoon with her husband who, until his retirement, for 25 years owned and operated Joe’s Barber Shop on West 9th Street in Escondido.

“From what we were told, they were terrified, and were constantly being threatened if they didn’t do what the hijackers said,” Daniel Delgado said. “But they weren’t treated badly--Dad didn’t even know about the person who was shot.”

While the Barczaks and Delgados admitted they were bitter that their loved ones had been put through such an ordeal, neither would elaborate on their feelings for the hijackers. “We’re not going to say any bad words until this whole thing is over,” Daniel Delgado said. “Who knows what harm could come to those poor people still on the plane if the hijackers heard one of us say something they didn’t like?”