The Logistics of Evacuating Afghanistan

this video was made possible by curiosity stream watch an exclusive companion video to this by signing up for the nebula bundle deal at curiositystream.com wendover on august 15th 2021 taliban fighters encircled kabul over the hours days and weeks prior they had swept across the nation toppling provincial capital after provincial capital now their grand prize their return to rule after 20 years of war with the west was within sight as police put on street clothes retailers raised the price of burqas and workers painted over pictures of women hamid karzai international airport maintained an eerie impression of normalcy it was certainly busy with civilians fleeing on commercial flights governments evacuating their diplomatic staff and airlines relocating their aircraft to more stable nations but the way cabell's airport operated that morning was broadly the way it operated any morning at 10 42 am a pakistan international airlines triple 7200 landed from islamabad at 11 26 a qatar airways triple 7 300 er touched down on a charter flight from doha shortly after at 11 49 a cam air a340 left on its daily run to delhi in spite of the foreboding feeling in the air the airport fulfilled its regular role for the bustling middle eastern metropolis but then came the news shortly after noon the taliban spoke person zabahula mujahid issued a statement their forces had encircled kabul and they intended to enter still the planes kept coming having allocated each one of their seats to those lucky enough to find an available ticket as an air india a320 approached however atc stopped responding with panic setting in on the ground controllers had abandoned their posts so in the air the a320 entered a holding pattern until its pilots determined a course of action twelve thousand feet above an emirates triple seven did the same until it diverted back to dubai but one hour later finally the air india aircraft successfully landed in the hours that followed without any atc clearance the pakistan international airlines triple 7 qatar airways triple 7 air india a320 and a pakistan international airlines a320 each departed for their destinations but the most significant departure was not one of the afternoon's planes but a passenger aboard it at 4 56 pm tolo news one of afghanistan's largest broadcasters reported that president ashraf ghani had fled the country the islamic republic of afghanistan was no longer the taliban were in control soon after its forces entered kabul at 7 38 pm a km air 737 left on the afghan airlines regular evening run to islamabad representing kabul's last regularly scheduled commercial flight for days weeks or maybe more meanwhile the taliban took control of the ark afghanistan's presidential palace and the first photos emerged displaying the finality of the situation reactions around kabul were mixed some celebrated the jihadist group does have some public support so kabul streets were roamed by men enjoying what was in their minds a victorious night others including nearly all women hidden their homes worried for potential violence and for the future of their country then there were those who feared for their lives journalists activists former government officials along with interpreters security guards and others who had worked with american nato and nato allied forces the desperation was undoubtedly profound because as soon as kabul's fall was no longer in question scores of people worked their way through the streets towards the same destination kabul airport the taliban already controlled every one of afghanistan's land border crossings so the airport was truly the singular way out for those who needed to leave surrounded by dense urban sprawl and located mere miles from the city center hamid karzai international airport is a nightmare from a perimeter security perspective it was hardly difficult for those who flock there to scale its walls and across the evening of august 15th thousands made it onto the airfield desperate to find any flight with any seat going anywhere but afghanistan in the days leading up to the fall of kabul the us had ramped up its evacuation efforts largely in the mission of evacuating its diplomatic staff before the situation deteriorated further therefore it had already deployed thousands of troops and effectively relocated its embassy and the key staff that ran it to the airport amidst the chaos a single c7 team was scheduled to depart filled with hundreds of individuals adorned with a wristband indicating that they had been authorized to travel on an american evacuation flight due to their status as an individual believed to be in acute danger under taliban rule the manifest for this flight reach 871 soon became moot as hundreds who were not assigned to the particular flight but were cleared to fly rushed the cargo bay the aircraft became packed far beyond its operating limit but faced with the alternative of spending hours reloading the aircraft properly as the airfield's condition decayed further reach 871's commander chose to break protocol and take off at 1 27 am on august 16th 823 passengers were packed onto the aircraft's floor easily breaking the record for the most people carried by a c-17 as the sun rose on the first day of the second era of taliban rule in afghanistan a brief lull from chaos along with the official announcement that the u.s military had taken over air traffic control at the airport allowed a turkish airlines triple 7 a civilian aircraft that just the day prior had flown a regular flight from san francisco to istanbul to land in order to pick up turkish citizens still left in the country it parked on the military side of the airport north of the runway around which military forces had established a security perimeter over the following hours as the aircraft loaded the situation deteriorated once again satellite imagery taken at 10 36 a.m displays the state of chaos the airport's southern gate was thoroughly breached with individuals flowing freely through four military vehicles appeared to be working to contain crowds of people to the civilian aircraft apron others had already made it further and were strewn across the runway a line of u.s military vehicles denoted their security perimeter preventing anyone from advancing further north into the military area of the airport from where evacuation flights were leaving two other vehicles flanked the crowd on each side to prevent the runway incursion from widening meanwhile to the east the turkish airlines triple 7 sat idle filled with its evacuees just waiting for a clear runway in order to take off without much progress it later taxied back to the apron as the military worked to clear the runway they were successful enough that a u.s air force c-17 was able to land at 12 30 pm but the aircraft was quickly swarmed by these same crowds as apache helicopters flew low across the runway in an attempt to clear people away the c-17s pilots decided to depart immediately without dropping off their cargo or loading evacuees inexplicably dozens of individuals clung to the aircraft as it taxied and some perhaps unaware of the aircraft's intention to take off did not let go gruesome video soon emerged depicting two individuals falling hundreds of feet to their death after takeoff and human remains were later found in the aircraft's wheel well upon its return to qatar this included fada mohammed a young dentist from the outskirts of kabul and zaki anwari a teenage soccer star who played centre-back on the country's youth national team perhaps the crowns were rattled by their deaths perhaps the military took them as a sign to intensify their efforts or perhaps something entirely different occurred but one way or another the runway was cleared and two u.s air force c-130 hercules aircraft were able to depart around 12 50 pm the turkish airlines triple 7 left 25 minutes after that the rest of the afternoon of august 16th was more of the same planes would land and take off for a period the situation would intensify flights would halt and then start again once the chaos settled down white house evacuation numbers suggest that the record-breaking early morning c-17 flight was likely the only departure to include civilian evacuees on august 16th as little success was had in the afternoon with the airfield in such a state of anarchy meanwhile seven thousand miles or eleven thousand kilometers away joe biden was on board marine one making the brief 40 minute flight from camp david the presidential country retreat to the white house the fact that the president was on vacation was indicative of the situation his administration never expected the taliban to conquer kabul so quickly the criticism for the bungling of the withdrawal was resounding just 26 of americans surveyed supported the president's handling of the situation and his overall approval rating took a nosedive by the evening of august 16th kabul had fallen the airport was in a state of chaos and there was little the biden administration could do to remedy the situation upon landing at the white house the president walked into the east room and as dozens of cameras stared him down he made his first public statement since the fall of cabell after a defiant rebuttal of criticism over the withdrawal decision and sober condolences to those affected by the situation the topic shifted towards the ongoing evacuation effort with biden saying quote our current military mission will be short in time limited in scope and focused in its objectives get our people and our allies to safety as quickly as possible the evacuation was all that was left of the 20-year war in afghanistan so it was the last mission that could sway public opinion of the white house's handling of the situation therefore the combined efforts of dozens of government agencies were all concentrated on getting as many endangered people as possible out of afghanistan as soon as possible by the end of the week of august 15th after days of steady but slower progress the pieces had been put in place to initiate a dramatic ramp up in evacuations for any individual eligible to take an american flight typically through status as an american citizen resident or special immigrant visa holder or applicant the first step was to actually get to the airport this was no small feat the taliban had set up two checkpoints on airport road the main route to the airport purportedly to control the flow of people and prevent further chaos while official taliban policy was to allow anyone authorized for evacuation by the us or other nations through there is often disconnect between policy and practice with the group so whether someone safely and successfully made it to the airport was largely up to the discretion of the individual taliban fighters operating such checkpoints the main civilian entrance to the airport was under taliban control so evacuees were typically instructed to make their way to the abbey east or north gates from there if they could work their way through the crowds and chaos their eligibility for evacuation would be checked and a member of the military would pat them down to check for weapons before letting them through evacuees would then make their way to the apron on the military side of the airport where they'd load onto typically a c-17 or c-130 to maximize capacity floor loading procedures were used where cargo straps were laid across the floor for passengers to hold onto during takeoff landing and turbulence this way the passenger density was far higher than if using seats as the cargo bay doors closed on each flight hundreds of evacuees glimpsed out at what would almost certainly be their final view of the country they called home from there american evacuation flights typically flew southwest for three hours landing at alude air base in qatar this is the largest u.s military installation in the middle east and in many ways acts as its headquarters of operations in the region for this mission the base served as an interim stopover point as the evacuees awaited an initial round of security screening before onward travel conditions were undoubtedly rough the military used cavernous aircraft hangars and temporary cots to house the evacuees but with limited climate control engineers struggled to find solutions to keep the space cool in the intense heat of the qatari desert aoud air base quickly became a bottleneck and on august 20th flights out of kabul were halted for a few hours as the facility reached capacity the global us military logistics system kicked into gear though as portable air-conditioned tents and toilets were flown in to increase capacity and improve conditions the main focus however was to get evacuees out of guitar as fast as possible move them towards their destination and make room for more to enable this the president activated the rarely used civil reserve air fleet essentially in order to compete for regular peacetime contracts to transport u.s military members and supplies around the world airlines in the u.s sign up as part of this reserve air fleet which can be activated when an emergency dictates that a need for aircraft capacity exceeds the practical capacity of u.s military aircraft this was such an instance therefore 18 aircraft from american airlines atlas air united airlines delta airlines omni air international hawaiian airlines and united airlines were called into service to assist with evacuations for example this united airlines triple seven three hundred tail number n2352u landed at al ud at 10 19 pm on august 22nd it spent four hours on the ground then ferried a full load of evacuees six hours west to ramstein air base in germany ramstein similar to alude is the largest american base in europe and effectively operates at the scale of a small city with up to 50 000 americans living in and around the base one of its major roles is to provide logistics capabilities meaning it quite often serves as a stopping point for military aircraft traveling between the us and the middle east therefore it had the perfect position and scale to relieve stress from al-udid in the more hospitable german climate there was no longer the issue of inhumane heat so the military set up a sprawling complex of tents and cots evacuated kids were even able to set up a daily soccer match on a patch of grass civilian volunteers helped distribute mountains of donated clothes sanitary products toys and more to the evacuees who had to leave almost all their possessions behind only permitted to take a single back after further security screening and immigration processing evacuees were ready to finally head to the united states the same aforementioned united airlines triple seven loaded up to fly this leg for the first time on august 23rd and then made the seven and a half hour flight west to dulles airport just outside washington dc upon landing evacuees were tested for kovid processed through immigration and finally took their first steps into the united states from there though it was more of the same they were bused to the nearby dulles expo center which acted as temporary housing as they awaited further travel in the hours or days waiting there each evacuee was offered a coveted vaccine and additional donated items some were bussed to nearby maguire air force base fort lee marine corps base quantico or fort pickett while others boarded further flights to fort mccoy in wisconsin fort bliss in texas or holloman air force base in new mexico these bases served as slightly longer-term housing for the evacuees as they awaited a final round of immigration processing before being connected with a refugee resettlement organization to assist them in setting up their new lives somewhere in the united states this entire evacuation process happened at a breakneck pace kabul to alodi to ramstein and ramstein to dulles likely became the busiest three international flight routes in the world for a few days even as other bases in kuwait italy spain and elsewhere were brought online as interim stopping points to relieve pressure on this main evacuation route as well the system was able to ramp up to a peak of 13 000 evacuations a day on u.s military aircraft as well as an additional 9 000 on civilian and allied military aircraft on august 24th the system was also however imperfect one crucial weakness was that the u.s military's role in administering kabul airport required at least some direct interface between service members and the general public specifically that occurred here at abby gates where troops checked individuals eligibility to enter and search them for weapons this was necessary to ensure the safety of the flights in theory most people at this location would have already passed through taliban security checkpoints but these were irregular and imperfect consequently taking advantage of the densely packed chaos on august 26 at 5 50 p.m a suicide bomber from isis k detonated their explosive vest and a gunman from the terrorist group then fired into the crowd 169 civilians and 13 american service members were killed by the 26th the bulk of the evacuation was already completed and so the suicide bombing had little effect on the success of the mission one by one over the coming days american allied nations announced the last of their evacuation flights and the end of their presence in afghanistan australia france new zealand italy and more finished on the 27th the uk the second most involved nation in the evacuations finished its effort on the 28th with all of its troops out of the country by the following day then on august 30th a few minutes before midnight ross wilson acting u.s ambassador to afghanistan boarded a c-17 followed by chris donahue commanding general of the 82nd airborne division behind him the cargo bay door closed the aircraft taxied rolled down the runway took off and banked towards the south with that moment for the first time in 19 years 10 months three weeks and two days the us military had no presence in afghanistan and the war was finally and officially over even once each of these tens of thousands of evacuees are safely in the u.s the process is far from over right now one of the largest and fastest resettlement efforts in history is kicking into gear and the logistics of helping such a massive people set up new lies in such a short amount of time are also fascinating as this video was already getting far too long i made another video on that topic and put it exclusively on nebula i'm able to do that because nebula was built by creators including myself from the ground up to be able to enable us to make even better and more unique content that's why i've been able to make multiple big budget nebula originals release my regular videos there early and ad-free and do these exclusive companion videos we also want new viewers to be able to watch our stuff on there so we've partnered with curiositystream to make it super easy to get access any curiosity stream subscription signed up for at curiositystream.comwendover includes access to nebula so that means you get two streaming sites for the price of one of course on curiosity stream you could watch anything from their enormous catalog of non-fiction shows and documentaries including afghanistan 1979 a fantastic documentary about the soviet afghan war that was the major contributing factor to the establishment of the taliban all of this curiosity stream and nebula together comes at a truly fantastic price with a bundle deal just 14.79 a year with the current sale which is just one dollar and 23 cents a month signing up helps provide steady predictable income to loads of independent creators large and small that you probably already watch and is genuinely a great deal so click this button or head to curiositystream.com wendover

Channel: Wendover Productions

Views: 1,538,426

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Id: o4tuhWvKduU

Length: 21min 24sec (1284 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021