A father and son played with toys and puzzles and rested on a quiet nine-hour flight from Brazil to Florida, a peaceful conclusion Thursday after a tumultuous reunion that brought a five-year custody battle spanning two continents to an end.

David Goldman and 9-year-old Sean Goldman landed in Orlando on a jet chartered by NBC. Later they were driven away in a caravan of three SUVs, heading to an unknown destination. They did not speak with reporters at the airport, but NBC broadcast an interview with the father and footage from the flight.

"My little boy is 5 feet away, sound asleep, peaceful," Goldman, of Tinton Falls, N.J., told the network. "We're on our way. My heart is just melting. I love him."

Earlier Thursday, when the father and son were reunited in Rio de Janeiro, the youngster was forced to squeeze though a jostling throng of reporters and photographers. The reunion ended an epic battle that pitted Sean's father against the boy's Brazilian stepfather, who had cared for Sean since his mother died last year. The dispute strained relations between the two countries and reached the highest level of government.

Soon after he fought his way through the crowd, a smiling Sean Goldman was back in his father's arms, talking about basketball and how much snow there was back in New Jersey.

"It is now time for our new beginning, the rebirth of our family at such a special time of the year," David Goldman wrote in a letter read to reporters after his departure.

Sean had lived in Brazil since Goldman's ex-wife, Bruna Bianchi, brought him to her native country for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation in 2004. She stayed, divorced Goldman and remarried, and Goldman began legal efforts to get Sean back.

After Bianchi died last year in childbirth, her husband, Paulo Lins e Silva, a prominent divorce attorney, continued the legal fight and won temporary custody.

"Today, the abduction has ended," said Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who was with Sean's father in Brazil and supported him.

The boy's maternal grandmother, Silvana Bianchi, however, said: "My heart is empty and broken because our love is missing. To take the boy on Christmas Day is a heinous crime."

The last act in the drama played out partly in public view. Wearing a gold Brazil Olympic T-shirt, a tearful Sean was walked a block to the American consulate, surrounded by his stepfather, other members of the family and their lawyer.

Once spotted by the more than 100 reporters and cameramen waiting for their arrival, the group had to drag, shove and push its way about 50 yards to the consulate's front door.

"I was disappointed to see him marched through the streets like that," Smith said.