The first of several flights carrying evacuees from Lebanon arrived Thursday at Baltimore-Washington International/Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The plane landed at 6:30 a.m. (1030 GMT), said Tracy Newman, a BWI spokeswoman.
The jet, an Omni Air International DC-10, carried between 140 and 150 passengers, Newman said. The passengers were going through customs after exiting the plane. After they come out of customs, they will be sorted based on their needs - whether they need to make travel arrangements, contact relatives, or any other type of assistance.
Medical care will be available, but Jeff Welsh, a spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, said Wednesday that he did not know of any evacuees who would need it.
Family members waited anxiously at the airport for the evacuees to disembark.
Sandie Choucair, of Abindgon, Maryland was waiting for her husband Mohamad, who had been visiting his mother in Beruit.
She said she spoke to her husband on the phone before he left and could hear bombs exploding.
"I could hear it over the phone and I just thought I was going to die a 100 times. It was an awful, awful experience to have to go through it," Choucair said.
The flights are part of a mass U.S. evacuation from Lebanon following the start more than a week ago of Israeli airstrikes. An estimated 8,000 of the 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon want to be evacuated.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich said he has directed the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Human Resources and other state agencies to help the evacuees when they arrive from Cyprus. The American Red Cross will provide medical assistance and other services.
Ehrlich said the number of evacuees change almost by the hour but the latest estimates were that hundreds will come to Baltimore.
Associated Press Writer Ben Nuckols contributed to this report.
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