Airmen cleared of wrongdoing in deaths of Afghans who mobbed C-17 during Kabul evacuation

| June 15, 2022

As if this were in doubt, but with the current administration I guess I would have been shitting bricks if I were part of this crew.

From Air Force Times;

An American C-17 crew tasked with evacuating people from Kabul last August followed the rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict when they decided to take off amid a mob of frantic Afghans on the runway, killing multiple people who clung to the transport jet, the Air Force said in a release Monday.

Video footage that went viral on social media showed people falling from the outside of the enormous Globemaster III as it began its ascent from Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 16, 2021. Human remains were found in the airlifter’s wheel well once it landed at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, spurring an Office of Special Investigations inquiry into the loss of life.

The incident came days after the Taliban toppled the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan following two decades of war there, making an already fraught evacuation effort even more dire for locals who feared extremist rule.

The C-17 had arrived with equipment to support the humanitarian airlift, but was surrounded by hundreds of Afghan civilians who had breached the airport. The jet taxied through the crowd and escaped.

Airmen used sound judgment in getting airborne as quickly as possible during the “unprecedented and rapidly deteriorating security situation,” service spokesperson Ann Stefanek said. “The aircrew’s airmanship and quick thinking ensured the safety of the crew and their aircraft.”

The Washington Post, which first reported the discovery of the remains, noted that the pilots declared an in-flight emergency when they could not pull up their landing gear.

Upon landing at Al Udeid, Air Force investigators impounded the aircraft to collect the human remains and turned the matter over to Qatari police, who did not investigate further.

Legal personnel from Air Mobility Command and U.S. Central Command, as well as the aircrew’s leadership, agreed with OSI’s conclusion that no wrongdoing occurred.

Airmen have returned to flight after seeking help to cope with the residual trauma from that day, Stefanek said. In all, Air Force crews evacuated more than 124,000 Afghans and Americans during one of the largest efforts to relocate noncombatants from a war zone in U.S. history.

“This was a tragic event and our hearts go out to the families of the deceased,” Stefanek said.

Now can we get these guys an Air Medal or a DFC for their troubles? It’s worth mentioning that this was a crew of reservists no less. One weekend a month they said.

Category: Afghanistan, Air Force

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Hack Stone

Hack Stone has flown Space-A quite a few times, leading him to be bumped from flights. They should have known that there was no guarantee that they would get a seat.

lmn0351

should have been a spew alert……to fucking funny

Hack Stone

You need to read the Terms Of Service for This Ain’t Hell. Paragraph 3.j clearly states that the administrators of this blog are not responsible for any damage incurred to keyboards, monitors or workstations caused by the discharge of hot or cold beverages while reading comments. You accept all risks associated with visiting this page, and as a precaution you should treat every comment with a Level IV Spew Alert.

If you feel that you do deserve compensation for damages, you are welcomed to join the class action lawsuit against This Ain’t Hell. Please contact the law office of Bernath And Associates, offices located in Tigard Oregon and Bonita Springs Florida.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

Hack, Your 100% on keyboards. Was drinking a bottle of soda pop while working the keyboard and lost a mouth full of pop which penetrated the keyboard soaking both spools of the black/red ribbon leaving some of the parts turning red from the red half of the ribbon, so the key to this is get off the chair and put some distance between yourself and the keyboard when taking a drink. I wouldn’t be ribbon you on this tip.

Hack Stone

You can always install a sneeze guard/spew guard in front of your computer components. It will also minimize your exposure to the COVID Virus.

AW1Ed

I’m told a combination of the SECDEF’s mask and face shield augmented with an Elizabethan pet collar provides the maximum in personal protection.

No, really.

austin mask.jpeg
BlueCord Dad

I always thought you guys used Dewey, Cheatum & Howe…1-800-SHYSTER…

KoB

There’s a complaint dprt for TAH that this Ol’ Gal runs. For complaints, go to Hellan Waite.

FuzeVT

No traumatic event a serviceman can go through can’t be made worse by worrying about what the lib-lead leadership may do to you because they don’t get what you do.

Anonymous

Border patrol guys still getting punished despite investigation finding they weren’t whipping folk, just because.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2022/06/14/report-dhs-preparing-to-discipline-mounted-border-patrol-agents-accused-of-whipping-haitian-migrants/

Sapper3307

I think team LGB wanted to court-martial the whole crew.
“Better to crash the bird and kill the crew than.”
FJB

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AW1Ed

You’ll see this toon again, Saps.
Thanks.

Hack Stone

Too soon?

Anonymous

Naw.

Roh-Dog

This just in! The current misadministration has determined that it was a problem with the naming convention of ‘wheels’ and ‘wheel well’ not being inclusive enough.

The wheel has long been problematic as it has stripped porting jobs away from BIPOC wymans and otherkin with it’s inherently racist efficacy and efficiency.

As a pilot program, this offending aircraft will have its round patriarchal rubber devices replaced with rainbow triangles with the appropriate black and brown stripes.

The priorly-consented-to touch-and-goes for this novel landing gear will be conducted on a ‘ableist gloating rapid bipedal motion'[run]way with ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ painted on the new type of rainbow++ed, soy-based binder asphalt surface to increase social lubrication and to ensure it is not ‘mostly peacefully’ burned in the name of justice.

SECDEF Austin’s hologram will be present in the vagepit (flight deck) dressed as Mary Queen of Scots for the SWILflight.

Roh-Dog

[‘Sex Work Is Liberating’, formerly known as ‘maiden flight’)

26Limabeans

So they were still loaded when taking off with extra passengers.
Ballsy decision and the correct one as I see it.

AW1Ed

Say what you will- we never had an issue like this with the P-3.
For four very good reasons.

Glad the crew was finally recognized for their cool handling of a bad situation.

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Skivvy Stacker

I saw a video recently of a guy who tried to duck under the tail rotor of a helicopter. Needless to say, it didn’t go well for him. The up side was that the blades tossed all the blood and brain matter away from the lovely, white, fuselage.

Hack Stone

Distraught refugees were informed that there was a fleet of Spirit Airlines jets scheduled to arrive shortly for evacuation operations, but the Afghans said they would take their chance in the wheel well of the C5.