The Air Force has retracted an explosive claim that there was a hijacking attempt on one of the Afghan evacuation flights.
The Air Force noted in a Tuesday statement that officials received an intelligence tip that five people on one of the commercial airline flights “intended to hijack the aircraft,” but that excerpt had been deleted as of Friday afternoon.
CENTCOM SHOOTS DOWN AIR FORCE ACCOUNT OF ATTEMPTED HIJACKING AT AFGHAN EVACUATION FLIGHT
The original statement did not provide additional details about when this took place or how it was resolved, but Lt. Col. Brian Desautels, the 71st Rescue Squadron and Personnel Recovery Task Force commander, said, “Our team worked to get them clear of the NATO ramp, relocated to the north side away from friendly forces, then ultimately onto the south side where the situation was handled.”
This quote has also been lifted from the now-edited statement as well. There is no note to explain the deletion, but there is an editor’s note at the bottom, which was also there when it was published originally, that reads, “This article has been thoroughly reviewed for operational security by U.S. Central Command as of Oct. 6, 2021.”
Central Command rejected the Air Force’s original statement two days after it was published, and it offered an additional rebuttal on Friday.
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“I am unaware of any attempt to hijack a plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport,” a CENTCOM spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “During the Afghanistan evacuation mission, an intel tip indicated the possibility of a plot to hijack a particular commercial flight that was preparing to depart the airfield. Ground traffic controllers diverted the plane to a safe location on the airfield where security forces boarded the plane and determined that there was no active attempt to hijack the aircraft.”
A spokesperson reiterated that statement on Friday, telling the Washington Examiner, “During the Afghanistan evacuation mission, there was never any hijacking attempt on a plane at Hamid Karzai International airport.”
The Air Force did not respond to a request for comment.
