After the Taliban took control of Kabul on Sunday, dozens of Afghans could be seen in video footage surrounding, climbing and trying to force themselves onto U.S. passenger jets as the aircraft took off from the capital’s airport.
Several videos showed a crowd of Afghans sprinting alongside a U.S. military jet in an apparent attempt to stop it from taking off from Kabul’s airport without them. Some climbed aboard, clinging to the outside as the aircraft gained speed on the tarmac.
Later, a number of videos emerged of a similar military aircraft during takeoff which showed an unidentified object appearing to fall from the aircraft.
NBC News was unable to confirm if the videos depicted the same aircraft.
The incidents occurred on the civilian side of Kabul’s airport Monday as the United States rushed to evacuate American diplomats from the country on the other side of the airport, which is separated by a row of barbed wire.
“We’re seeing desperation here at the airport,” NBC News Chief Foreign Corespondent Richard Engel said on MSNBC. “Thousands of thousands of Afghans have been trying to break into the airport, rush in.”
“There have been horrible scenes where thousands of people, without any security checks, without any controls, went onto the tarmac, with their families, with their luggage,” he said. “The aircrafts were so full, the pilots refused to take off.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
