Chaos reigned at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, following the takeover of the capital by Taliban forces. At least seven have died trying to flee, including two Afghans who fell to their deaths trying to cling to the wheel well of a departing U.S. military transport on Monday. Another body was discovered inside a wheel well after a C-17 diverted to land at an airport in a third country when the crew was unable to retract the landing gear after taking off from Kabul, according to a Washington Post report.
In better news, another C-17, reportedly attached to the 436th Airlift Wing based at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, departed from Kabul with some 640 refugees on board (some reports claim it could have been as many as 800). The C-17 is configured to carry fewer than 200 passengers, but according to the reports, Afghans continued to climb aboard and the crew refused to deny boarding. A defense official said, “The crew made the decision to go.”
Once the situation at the airport is stabilized, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, officials hope to transport as many as 5,000 people out of Afghanistan per day.
