A record 823 passengers, according to the Pentagon, were flown from Kabul, Afghanistan to the United States in a military transport plane, a crowded flight whose photograph has become a symbol of evacuation operations.
According to preliminary estimates, 640 passengers were taken to the runway by bus, but that number did not include 183 children, many of whom sat on their parents’ laps, the US Air Force said today.
The plane “safely transported 823 Afghans from Hamid Karzai International Airport,” said the US military, which on Tuesday tried to play down the haste and chaos surrounding the evacuation.
This is a record for the C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, more than double its normal capacity.
The Pentagon did not specify the size of the crew of the overcrowded plane, which took off on Sunday as an emergency from Kabul.
The now iconic photograph of the C-17’s interior filled with seated Afghans “bears witness to the humanity of our soldiers on their mission,” General Hank Taylor said on behalf of the Pentagon.
Afghan extremist Taliban moved into Kabul on Sunday after capturing most of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals in an offensive that began in May when US and NATO forces began withdrawing.
International forces have been in the country since 2001 as part of Washington’s offensive against the Taliban regime, which welcomed the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, the organizer of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
