800 People Evacuated From Kabul Aboard A Single C-17 Cargo Jet: Reports

Yeah, but smaller than a C5A and we used them a lot

Nevertheless that’s an impressive feat, lifting out 640 in one flight. There wouldn’t have been much personal space left for each passenger. Somewhere in the corporate offices of Ryanair and Spirit there must be planners wondering “How can we monetize this??”

Still very impressive and courageous, normally people are in seats or as cargo "tied down", great work in extremely difficult circumstances.

the crew themselves reported an hour ago that the final count was 823

That "pushing the weight limit" statement is clearly assuming a 200lb weight average per person. Anyone who has served in the region can tell you that is highly unlikely, and in fact is closer to the south end of 150. Worlddata.info shows it as 128. But even at 150 we are looking at 120k. While some had a little baggage - the pictures (much like the Filipino evac in 2013) shows that the majority of them do not.

Either way - they were well below takeoff weight - and that even includes a full load of fuel (which they likely did not have or need, as they flew only to Qatar - which is only 1/4 of the 17's one-way range.

I heard this morning (20th) that the number of pax (from the photo that has been shown) was 860.

120K is well below the maximum payload of 170K.

OK, there’s ONE thing good about getting old! You’ve seen it all before. This is Viet Nam the sequel. We’ve gotta stop doing this!

PanAm N653PA departed Saigon on April 24th, 1975 and was not the last civilian flight out of Saigon. The last civilian flight departed on April 25th, 1975, out of Tan Son Nhat Airport in Saigon. The plane registered N693WA, was a World Airways B-727-173C. The Captain on this flight was my late father-in-law Nick Bountis from Pleasanton, CA.

74 is significantly longer and has multiple decks. C-17 is wider and taller - so lots of wasted vertical space for this kind of operation. But if you did want to put the 747 in the back seat - fly a C-5 onto the set - which is long, wide and can be configured with an upper deck.

No place to shift to. And no windows. I'm sure they had to firehose that thing out for the turnaround. Great job by the crew. Keep up the great work. Thousands need it.

You will notice on the departure videos from the runway that the climb rate was extremely shallow - and likely for that very reason.

My thought as well, certainly they kept awareness of G-loading their cargo around the plane, great job !

I thought the same thing, yikes!

actually the crew themselves have stated an hour ago that the count was 823.

That's about the same as the C-17 evac from the Philippines in 2013.

Except for the policy-making "woke" wonks in the upper levels of all the services. They are, in large part, why we are in this debacle.

Even the Taliban see this as a nightmare. Why do you think the Soviets erected a wall around West Berlin? Having your citizens actively and constantly trying to escape really undercuts your legitimacy. Don't get me wrong: the Taliban are horrific. But even they are putting out what qualifies for them as a "charm offensive" as they attempt to exert legitimate authority over the failed state of Afghanistan.

Good grief, remember that? March 29th 1975 two World Airways 727-100s went to Da Nang without any clearance or State permission. One of the 727s was unable to land. The other 727 took off on the taxiway with about 270 in the cabin and another 60 or so in the cargo hold. All the while taking small arms fire from the gooks*


Best

Capt. J Buck
Veteran, Viet Nam Police Action

*sorry the use of the term gooks is politically incorrect, it should read NVA, Viet Minh or Viet Cong.

Where can I find the story on Ed Daly ? thxs

Hi Robin , a tip for you , try the app {Plane Finder } you can track most of the evac flights ,no they don't overfly Iran Or Pak .

southern route through the western side of pak. us & allied forces do not fly over or through iran.

Exactly, and that is what I said in my only (so far in my life) correspondence to the White House. I said they have the opportunity to somewhat redeem themselves and urged them to put 25-50,000 troops back in to get all "innocents" out (our equipment too). I told them they don't need to do it for me or other like-minded people because we would most likely never vote for them, but they need to do it for the good name of the United States of America.

We had the power to make this orderly and safe. Pretty simple to evac USA citizens and then our Afghan allies and THEN the military and lastly the Air Force CAP planes while keeping the Taliban out of range with the threat of air strikes. Could have gotten billions of dollars worth of equipment out too. Joe just did what he was told to do though.

You are so correct .

but they have their lives. some things are more important than others. Ask the 650 that were on the 17 out of the Philippines back in 2013.

Qatar is hardly the U.S. - let's hope the "vetting" will happen there. These unfortunate individuals are still a long way off from flying into the U.S.

their having never been on an aircraft before was not the contributing factor to their loss of life. Desperation and panic was. Had the withdrawal been conducted properly and over time - there would have indeed been an orderly way to load people into the aircraft vs. onto it.

And United is bitching about having to get duct tape glue off the seat armrests.

Who would have told the President to take the action he did? the{ Military -industrial complex .Any way you cut it , it's a giant screw up .

This is just wrongful blame shifting, presidents don't plan military operations, you're right about relatively simple plans, you're wrong if you think command and logistics don't share your "special genius". Research the troop withdrawals and Taliban prisoner releases in 2020 ( since you apparently don't know ) equipment removal as well, did you expect us to disarm the Afghan army when we left? There does need to be proper, realistic accountability, otherwise we learn nothing. Want an interesting read ? BBC News May 3 2021 Hillary Clinton warns of huge consequences in Afghanistan withdrawal.

one.

A hole in the floor, with a funnel and a tube.

Probably less than 25%

This is a four President issue. No one had the balls to exit. Go ahead and blame Biden, but TOG was the one who set the terms to withdrawal and basically telegraphed the timetable. It’s been a CF since 2002. Nation building never works from the top-down. We never had an exit strategy in Korea, Viet Nam, Beruit, Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m interested in what you’d do better if you had the power.

BTW, the Taliban held the majority of the country during the Trump and second term of Obama. Only around Kabul was there a perimeter of security. Once Trump telegraphed the exit plan, all the Taliban had to do was wait it out. We propped up the Agfanistan government with boatloads of cash, starting with Bush, continuing with Obama and Trump. They never were capable of providing their own security. Plus Afghanistan is made up of clans. They’re all in it for what’s best for their clan. It isn’t in their interest to support a centralized government. A little history reading illuminates that.

Nope, Bush got us into the mess. Your platinum blonde 300lb orange Jesus set it in motion when he invited the Taliban to Camp David. He knew exactly what he was doing. And, he would of done this same move, except he Lost a legitimate election, thank the Almighty above.

There are not enough eye roll GIF's for this comment.

you could really fold their brains by mentioning the influx at the southern border :)

thankfully they are sent to AMARC and not made available for private sale.

- It can't be labeled an allied airport; but Islamabad, Pakistan ISB / OPIS is quite close to Kabul.

A flight tracking site (not Flightaware) shows a Pakistan airways B777 operated flight 6249 from Islamabad to Kabul this evening, 18 August. Before the events of recent days, Pakistan airways commonly operated a flight number PIA249 on that route.

For military aircraft that can be refueled in flight, a nearby friendly airport is not necessary. Apparently the USAF has established a tanker bridge in the area:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41988/shadowy-kc-135rt-special-ops-tankers-head-toward-afghanistan-as-evacuation-airbridge-forms

One

They can't. All inbound flights were instructed on the TFR to come with enough fuel to get out, as ground fuel services were not available. I am sure by now that has been fixed somewhat.

(Max takeoff weight)

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42005/800-people-evacuated-from-kabul-aboard-a-single-c-17-cargo-jet-reports

Interesting. I looked at the "same" video many times on TV but did not see the people falling from the plane. Must have been edited by our media.

The old record was 640some during the 2013 evac from the typhoon in the philippines. and in both cases - nobody was standing. that would be very dumb.

C5s are relaying troops and equipment to/from nearby transfer airfields where the 17s are landing. Russia is not involved - hence no AN-124s (which are roughly the same size as C-5s)

Compared to the C-17, the C5 doesn't have the tactical takeoff/landing capeability to help it's chances of survivability if attacked during those critacal times.