When hundreds of desperate Afghan refugees flooded the jet, it successfully landed in Qatar yesterday, carrying more than five times its recommended weight.
Reach 871, a C-17 Globemaster III huge military transport plane used by the US and its allies for the past 30 years, took off late Sunday local time from Kabul International Airport.
The crew safely evacuated more than 640 Afghans, according to US defense sources and images obtained by Defence One.
The passenger load was possibly one of the largest ever carried by a C-17, according to authorities.
Hundreds of Afghans were cleared to depart and managed to pull themselves up aboard the cargo plane's half-open ramp, despite the cargo plane's lack of capacity.
Afghans already in the plane were shown in a video posted on Sunday pushing additional people up as they all rushed around the jet.
Reports that USAF C-17 RCH871 airborne out of #Kabul in #Afghanistan has 800 passengers on board! Incredible work being done by #USAF and allied aircrews just now which will without a doubt go down in the history books #AvGeek #RadioGeek #MilMonWorld #BravoZulu pic.twitter.com/8De9wLusWb
— Military Monitoring World (@MilMonWorld) August 15, 2021
"The crew made the decision to go," an official told Defence One when faced with the choice of forcing the extra refugees off the plane or attempting to take off.
"Approximately 640 Afghan civilians disembarked the aircraft when it arrived at its destination," another source stated.
According to initial accounts, there were up to 800 individuals on the plane, with recordings suggesting that the flight crew believed there were up to 800 people on board.
Chaos at the Kabul airport
As the Taliban approached the Afghan capital, tens of thousands of people flocked to Kabul Airport.
Hundreds of people were on board a number of cargo flights, according to a US official.
There were also awful images at the airfield, as frantic evacuees clung to the wings and landing gear as the C-17 planes took off, unable to get aboard.
At least two people died after the jets took off, according to footage from Kabul Airport.
At least seven persons were killed at the airport, according to senior US military officials, including those who fell from a departing American military transport plane.
Afghans clambered onto the side of the C-17 and clung to its undercarriage as it slid down the tarmac shortly after the runway footage was released.
People were also seen falling from the skies in subsequent footage.
According to accounts on the internet, at least 12 passengers were seen holding on to the plane's landing gear as it took off. It indicates that the majority of those killed were young guys.
The previous largest group to be evacuated on a C-17 was 670 individuals, who were evacuated from the Philippines in 2013 to escape a severe storm.
