The U.S. Air Force says human organs have been found in the wheel of a U.S. military C-17 cargo plane that took off after chaos at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
According to the New York Times, Air Force officials did not say how many people were killed in the incident two days ago, but said the service was investigating the "loss of civilian life."
He said that after the Taliban's takeover of Kabul and the overthrow of the Afghan government, a mob of Afghans was eager to flee the country and hung from the plane but fell from a height after taking off.
A horrific video of the incident, recorded by Afghan News Media, is circulating on social media and in this horrific scene, hopeful Afghans can be seen hanging from a flying American plane.
"We are all assessing the human cost of these developments," US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan said in a briefing yesterday.
He said that the pictures received from Kabul Airport for the last few days were shocking.
General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the top US military official in Afghanistan, arrived in Kabul yesterday, saying commercial flights that had been suspended had been restored to secure the field.
A White House official said US military flights had evacuated about 1,100 people from Afghanistan the previous day, bringing the number of people returning to the United States to more than 3,200.
U.S. pilots and soldiers were forced to make sudden decisions in the wake of the panic at the airport on Sunday and Monday.
Similarly, another C-17 plane took off from Kabul late Sunday night with 640 people on board, more than twice the number, which was taken away after receiving clearance from the State Department.
Military officials said the pilots determined that a large plane could handle a heavier load, so they decided to take off and bring the Afghans on board safely to their destination.
However, those who tried to board a different C-17 the next day were not so lucky.
On the morning of August 16, a Gray Air Force plane landed on the runway, carrying equipment and other equipment for the US Navy and soldiers to secure the airport and help evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghans.
As soon as the plane reached the runway and its ramp was opened, hundreds or perhaps thousands of Afghans rushed forward, which threatened the short-lived crew.
The crew knew what had happened the night before and a large number of people were boarding flights at the airport on Monday morning.
Officials said crew members feared for their safety and closed the loading ramp before boarding the plane and ending unloading.
He said that after which the Afghan citizens hung from the wings and wheels of the plane but the crew did not know about it.
The crew contacted U.S. Air Force-controlled air traffic control, which cleared the plane for takeoff, and after a few minutes on the runway, the plane took off.
Keeping in mind the people hanging on the plane, the pilots first flew slowly, the military Humvees proceeded to take the people off the plane and take them away, 2 Apache helicopter gunships flew at low altitude to scare people. He tried to get away from the plane.
A few minutes later, however, the pilot and co-pilot realized that there was a serious problem because the landing gear was not completely off. I can see the potential problems well.
And then the crew saw the remains of an indefinite number of Afghans who had fallen into the wheel, apparently crushed by landing gear.
After a four-hour flight, the plane landed at Qatar's Al-Adeed Airbus, which has become a hub for passengers, including Americans and Afghans.
After being informed of the plane crash, the mental health counselor and others met with grieving crew members as soon as they disembarked.
"Authorities are working hard to better understand what happened at the time," said Ann Stephen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Air Force.
Hundreds of people tried to board the plane, killing at least five people, Reuters reported.
On the other hand, Tolo News said that 10 people were killed and several others were injured in the incident and some of them died as a result of firing as a warning by the American troops in an attempt to control the situation.
Meanwhile, senior U.S. military officials said the chaos killed seven people, some of whom fell from a flying U.S. military transport jet.
