It’s really heart breaking to see what has happened at Kabul Airport. In today’s video, I would like to share 2 real stories of some of the last civilian departures out of Kabul, Afghanistan.

My contact, Roman, arrived in Kabul on the morning of 15th August, to pick up a Ukrainian Constanta Airlines An-26 departing out of Kabul. He managed to depart out of Kabul at 12:01, after an hour of holding and waiting at the runway threshold. Just 30 mins after his departure, Kabul airport started to descend into chaos. Listen to Roman’s story about their lucky escape out of Kabul.

The next story is from PIA A320 captain Maqsood Bijarani, who was caught during the initial chaos at Kabul Airport with Air Traffic Control out of operation (“ATC Zero”). To avoid further security compromise, Captain Maqsood took his own decision to take-off without ATC assistance or approval. He managed to keep his flight visual amidst low fly pass military traffic and took his passengers and crew to safety.

“All I could see was military traffic and unauthorized persons entering the airport. Gunships were dropping flares for their protection. The situation was so unpredictable and I had to keep my passengers calm, for which my cabin crew is to be commended as well as the security staff onboard.”

Turkish Airlines Flight TK707 was the last civilian departure on 16th August. Since then, military has taken control of Kabul Airport and the Air Traffic Control. Military transport such as the C-17, the A400M and the C-130 are ferrying evacuees out of Kabul to nearby Air Force Bases and then civilian airplanes are taking them onwards.

Full story of PIA Captain Maqsood Bijarani is also available on my blog: [ Ссылка ]

PIA Captain Interview Source: [ Ссылка ]

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