LAHORE: On the fateful day of Sunday when the Taliban captured the capital city of Afghanistan, two commercial planes of the Pakistan International Airlines were waiting at the runway of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul for clearance from the air traffic control to take off for flight back home.
While the first plane, an Airbus, took off after securing clearance from the ATC, Maqsood Bajrani and his crew had little idea of how fast things were unravelling on the ground.
The insurgents were seizing Kabul after the government of President Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan collapsed, bringing to a swift end almost two decades of a US-led coalition’s presence in the war-torn country.
As Bajrani’s PK-6252, with 170 people onboard, prepared for landing, the office of the ATC dropped a bombshell: “The Taliban have captured the city. We are leaving our posts. You’re now on your own.”
On being informed of the development, Bajrani’s crew told him to “take your own decision”.
After reading the situation, a crew member said, the captain promptly decided to take off. “Soon afterwards the plane started moving with high speed to take off […] it was because the captain was following two fighter jets running ahead of the PIA plane as he thought it better to follow them,” she said.
The crew finally took a sigh of relief when the captain informed them that they had entered the territory of Pakistan. The plane landed at Islamabad International Airport at about 7:10 pm on Sunday.
The chief executive officer of the PIA, Arshad Malik, praised Bajrani for bringing the plane during the crisis-like situation.
“In a crisis situation, the use of understanding, experience and skills is a sign of a real professional,” Malik said.
Commercial flights out of Hamid Karzai International Airport were cancelled Sunday evening and remained so until early Tuesday. Airport security and air traffic control were taken over by the US military, according to the Pentagon, in the absence of local airport security authorities.
American troops have secured the military side of the airport, where the US Embassy staff and operations were relocated on Sunday. It’s unclear how many American citizens remain in Afghanistan, but some lawmakers in Washington say they have received hundreds of calls amid a lack of clarity from the State Department.
State Department staff have set up their own hotline for people seeking emergency flights out of the country, but a deluge of requests means many calls go unanswered.
The department’s official advisory says: “Do not call the US Embassy in Kabul for details or updates about the flight. Do not travel to the airport until you have been informed by email that departure options exist.”
