The US Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is currently investigating the incident where human body parts were found in the wheel well of a C-17 plane that departed from Kabul, Afghanistan over the weekend, as well as Information shows that the Afghans cling to the outside of the plane and fall to their deaths.
Video shows hundreds of people running alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the Kabul airport. https://t.co/9KvlpGgLnM pic.twitter.com/osGnDQX9rb
— ABC News (@ABC) August 16, 2021
The Air Force provided a summary of events to Fox News, explaining that on August 15, a C-17 Globemaster III took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport and landed at the base. troops in Qatar. The plane’s crew declared an emergency after its landing gear failed. They checked and found the body in the wheel, after the plane diverted to another location and landed.
The Air Force described the incident: “In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to leave the airport as quickly as possible. In addition to videos viewed online and in the press, a human body was found in the wheelhouse of the C-17 plane after it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. The aircraft is currently on hold to allow time to gather what [possibly] remains, and to double-check the condition of the aircraft before it is returned to flight.”
POV shot from somebody attempting to cling to that USAF C-17 departing Kabul yesterday.
I’m sure most were blown off during the takeoff roll, and the rest fell when the landing gear doors closed.
There’s another video of a body trapped in the doors I won’t share pic.twitter.com/0iBeNU2anI
— 𝘽𝙧𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙪𝙢𝙚 (@BryanPassifiume) August 17, 2021
This is what failed foreign policy looks like. I was just sent this from an Air Force pilot. Policy mistakes matter. Biden continues his streak of being on the wrong side of virtually every US foreign policy decision. pic.twitter.com/t4TGADQvjh
— Eli Bremer (@elibremer) August 17, 2021
Mobile phone footage of the chaotic airport scene went viral on the Internet on August 15. The people of Afghanistan could see objects falling from the departing plane (most likely people), and some of them were trying to jump out of the plane as it moved onto the runway. Other videos emerged showing objects falling from the plane believed to be the bodies of Afghans.
At least 20,000 Afghans are believed to be seeking Special Immigrant Visas to leave Afghanistan, fearing retaliation by the Taliban for their support of US operations in the country. By the end of August 15, about 2,000 Afghans had been evacuated to the US.
With the Taliban in control of Kabul, Pentagon officials are trying to evacuate “at-risk individuals” in the coming weeks. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned it would “take some time” for the Department of Defense to improve its capacity to accept refugees.