KABUL RESCUE FLIGHTS BY 13 COUNTRIES
Since the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan to the Taliban forces on 15th August, the world has joined together to rescue their nationals and Afghans. We have compiled a list of ten countries that are flying day and night, in very difficult conditions, to rescue as many people as possible. Please note the below list of countries is not complete or exhaustive. There are some countries we did not cover in this post. (The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Denmark etc) Canada Canada is using two CC-177 Globemaster’s to rescue Canadian nationals and Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban takeover. The first flight left Kabul airport late Thursday evening, carrying 175 Afghans and 13 foreign nationals. “The Globemaster’s are currently being reconfigured to carry the maximum number of people as safely as possible, and Canadian Armed Forces personnel are empowered to make decisions on the ground in the interest of saving human lives.” Department of National Defence spokesperson Jessica Lamirande. Germany On 18th August the first of three Afghanistan evacuee flights, on behalf of the German government, arrived at Frankfurt with 130 people. The Airbus A340-300 from Lufthansa picked up passengers who had been taken by the German air force from the Afghan capital of Kabul to the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. Further special flights from Tashkent, Doha and other neighbouring nations are due to be used for evacuation purposes in the next few days. Also, German Joint Forces are performing rescue flights using the A400; as of yesterday 11 flights had been performed, with 1640 people on board in total. Pakistan Pakistan International Airlines was the only commercial airline continuing to fly to Kabul, after all the others had pulled out by 16th August. However after multiple flights and evacuating about 2000 people from Kabul, including journalists, diplomats and staff of the IMF/World Bank, PIA decided to suspend operations, due to unsafe tarmac and taxiways, debris and lack of relevant airport staff and facilities for flight operations. On Friday 20th, PIA operated two flights using an A320 and a Boeing 777. The CEO of PIA, Arshad Malik, personally flew to Kabul to assess the situation. USA The US is […]
