Air India is not sure they can bring back Indians from Kabul.
KEY POINTS :
- Air India flight took off on time, a little afternoon, Sunday, but the ground reality changed in just the two hours that the plane took to reach Afghanistan airspace.
- Just as the crew prepared for the landing and the pilots coordinated with Air Traffic Control, it got no reply.
The closing business flight to Kabul had a dramatic landing and take-off just as fighters belonging to the Taliban have been capturing Afghanistan’s capital, taking up the Palace and securing the perimeter of the metropolis’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Air India flight number 243 took off on time, a touch after midday, Sunday, but the ground reality modified in just the 2 hours that the plane took to attain Afghanistan airspace. Just because the team organized for a touchdown and the pilots tried to coordinate with Air Traffic Control, they were given no response.
“Zero respond. We have been simply met with silence,’’ stated one of the group contributors who did now not desire to be named. According to every other, there has been no other plane inside the location, and the pilots had no choice but to preserve their descent into Kabul.
In the meantime, other airlines had been directing their pilots to show round and not land in Kabul.
Several airways, which includes United Airlines and British Airways, stopped the use of Afghanistan on Sunday. Lufthansa, KLM and Air India stopped operations Monday, after the warfare-torn u . S .’s civil aviation authority issued NOTAMs or notices to airmen, last its airspace to all civilian flights.
In that hour, American troops were running their helicopters to evacuate their body of workers out of their embassy in Kabul. They were also supporting President Ghani flee. The Taliban had made it clear: they had been now not inclined to settle for meantime authorities. They had reached the outskirts of Kabul and had been waiting to go into the Palace.
After an extended one hour, the Americans took over the air traffic manipulate, and IA 243 finally got a reply: they could land, but after the Americans had airlifted their envoys out in their embassy.
The drama did now not stop after Air India subsequently managed to touch down on Kabul’s runway.
The airport neither had a ground handling group of workers nor safety personnel. The flight had to refuel for its adventure back to Delhi. The fuel bowser driving force was nowhere to be found.
The turn-round flight took three hours to leave the Taliban-controlled us of a, but simplest after the Americans helped discover a motive force for the browser and the Air India team doubled up to safety check the passengers and their luggage.
The closing civilian flight subsequently landed in Delhi, and the group relaxed after a harrowing day but only after being grilled by way of senior control officers and officers from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. Their primary worry: did everybody aside from a passenger make it lower back at the closing flight out of Kabul?
