US Air Force details scenes at Kabul airport

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A US Air Force account of the final days of the US evacuation from Afghanistan, published recently, reveals more details about the chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, including the attempted hijacking of a commercial jet. .

The account, posted on the Air Force website Tuesday, was written by Lt. Col. Kristen Duncan, a public affairs officer for the 23rd Wing, who was deployed to Afghanistan this summer.

During the evacuation operation, when US Air Force C-17s began arriving steadily at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, Duncan wrote that Airmen from the Personnel Recovery Task Force began tracking passengers leaving the airport.

"On one occasion, after receiving an intelligence tip, five people aboard one of the commercial flights intended to hijack the plane," Duncan wrote.

"Our team worked to get them off the NATO ramp, relocating them to the north side, away from friendly forces, and finally to the south side, where the situation was controlled," he wrote, citing Lt. Col. Brian Desautels, commander. of the 71st Rescue Squadron and leader of the airmen in Kabul.

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Although Duncan's published account offers few details about the kidnapping attempt, it provides new insight into the frenzied US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August, when US military personnel rushed to evacuate themselves, as well as other Americans, and Afghan allies, after the country fell to the Taliban.

Duncan does not specify which airline or the day the flight departed.

There is also no information on the five people taken off the flight and whether they were detained or released.

The case on the Kabul airstrip

Describing the hectic scene at the airport, Duncan writes that moments after a C-17 cargo plane took off with Afghans clinging to its side, two of the Wing's HC-130J fighter rescue jets took off with hardly any runway. landing, skimming 3 meters above the heads of the crowd that had packed into the airport during evacuation efforts.

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Duncan said Desautels had contacted the Combined Forces Air Component commander, who said the planes could take off from a taxiway if necessary.

"'The strategic message: we would have an airstrip,'" Desautels said, according to Duncan's account.

Duncan also described another scene at the Kabul airport in which an agent was subjected to "effective sniper fire" while expeditionary rescue squads helped secure a portion of the airport for medical treatment.

"To stay open, the senior enlisted leader of the United States Forces said he needed people to cover security," Duncan wrote.

"Personnel Recovery Task Force (PRTF) pilots, maintainers and support personnel donned their M-4 vests, helmets and rifles and took up defensive fighting positions."

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"'One of our captains was on the roof receiving effective sniper fire,'" Duncan quoted Desautels as saying.

"All enemy combatants took every opportunity to incite further chaos in what was already a chaotic event."

Although the United States completely withdrew all military personnel from Afghanistan in late August, marking the end of America's longest war, some American citizens remained in the country and were subsequently evacuated.

The pullout, which began in early summer and accelerated as the August 31 deadline approached, also turned deadly after a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport killed 13 US service members.

CNN's Devan Cole contributed to this report.

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