A U.S. military cargo plane carried roughly 640 Afghan people from Kabul late on Sunday, according to a newly released photo depicting one of the many densely packed evacuation flights.
The U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, which carried the Afghans, has operated for nearly three decades but was never intended to hold such a vast load of people. Panicked and desperate Afghans attempting to flee the country following the Taliban takeover of the country reportedly pulled themselves onto the plane’s half-open ramp, a U.S. defense official told Defense One on Monday.
“Approximately 640 Afghan civilians disembarked the aircraft when it arrived at its destination,” another defense official told the outlet.
The plane departed from Kabul and landed at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, roughly a three-hour flight. The procedure for evacuating mass numbers in this fashion is called “floor loading,” as passengers grasp onto cargo straps run from wall to wall as makeshift seatbelts, according to a source familiar with the plane’s operations.
INTEL COMMUNITY DEFENDS ITSELF AFTER US WAS CAUGHT OUT BY SPEED OF TALIBAN TAKEOVER
“The Crew Made the Decision to Go:” Inside Reach 871, A US C-17 Packed With 640 Afghans Trying to Escape the Taliban | @TaraCopp and @MarcusReports https://t.co/lf3LajxzzX pic.twitter.com/JH5Yrkwet4
— Defense One (@DefenseOne) August 17, 2021
The news about the plane’s cargo load spread online late on Sunday after audio from the flight crew estimating they were carrying 800 passengers was posted to TheDrive.com. A defense official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the correct number was more likely about 640.
Still, the flight was just one of many densely packed evacuation trips made from Kabul over the weekend, as video footage taken from outside the airport showed the vast numbers of Afghan civilians attempting to board the planes. Some civilians were captured on video falling to the ground after they had clung to the side of a plane. At least seven people died during the airport evacuation chaos, including two armed people shot by U.S. troops.
The United States resumed evacuation flights out of Kabul’s airport on Monday just hours after they were suspended due to the rush of people crowding the tarmac and instability in the area.
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The chaos in Kabul ensued as the Taliban took over the capital on Sunday and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country amid the U.S.’s troop withdrawal from the country. President Joe Biden admitted the fall of the government came “more quickly than we anticipated” but stood by his decision to end “America’s war-fighting in Afghanistan” on Monday.
