the Kabul evacuation pilots, between the fear of missiles and the craggy mountains

Difficult approach conditions between steep mountains, risk of attacks, takeoffs throwing decoys to deflect missiles, exhausted and overcrowded refugees … Several pilots participating in evacuations of Kabul recounted the dramatic operations carried out “at their own risk”, as the control tower warns them every time, in Afghanistan.

“I have done unconventional flights, pBut it was demanding and excessively long“, Says” the commander MM “, pilot of an A319 of the Czech air force, which evacuated 62 people Wednesday.

An airport located in a valley with rugged mountains at an altitude of 1800 meters, with a single runway, surrounded by insurgents and guarded by navies and intense air traffic despite the absence of navigation aids systems announce the complexity of each landing and take-off.

“It was an experience,” he told the website of the Czech Defense Ministry.

“We had to keep our distance and land one behind the other. We were looking for frequencies to communicate with each other, ”he explains.

The air traffic control was barely audible and the decisions were left to the crew, the controllers giving only information, followed by “at your own risk”.

Complications

For taxiing and take-off from the airport’s only runway, the Czech pilot followed the instructions of the TCAS, the automatic collision warning system.

“We could see the distance between us on the TCAS monitor and that was, in addition to direct communications between the crews, the main means of coordination,” he explains, referring to a “really complicated” situation.

The Americans, who deployed 5,800 men at the airport, “they carry out all the air traffic control” explains Stephen, commander of a French military transport A400M and which can only be mentioned by his first name.

“With a plane like this, we are very helped by our systems but we ended up landing visibly “he told AFP at French base 104 in Al-Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates, where French evacuation flights from Kabul stop over.

To protect against possible missile fire, the A400M can cast infrared decoys, which emit heat to deceive a possible missile, as shown in a video of a French plane taking off from Kabul and posted on social networks.

Approaching the runway, the plane brutal fall to “escape the threat during our approach”, explains the French pilot.

Arrivals and departures are “regulated like the musical role,” according to Commander Stephen. “There is such trafficking from all nations that if it is not organized it would not be possible. “

The pilots must “absolutely” respect the imposed time slots: “half an hour between landing and take off”.

The people

On the ground, “it looks like an anthill of big planes but well organized. “In 12 hours overnight Monday through Tuesday, 15 US military planes and 34 from other countries evacuated approximately 11,000 people.

Fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15 dropped thousands of civilians at Hamid Karzai Airport, the only way out of the country.

When he landed there that morning, everything was normal, recalls Maqsoud Barajni, pilot of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Then “I noticed that there was panic outsidea, that the situation was abnormal. More and more people were rushing into the airport and gunshots were heard. “

They told him commercial flights were suspended, so I was not authorized to take off. “The safety of the plane and the passengers was the main objective (…), we decided to take off no matter what,” the A320 pilot told AFP. Despite the lack of air traffic control at the time.

“After observing the situation for an hour, I finally took off. Visibility was good, which allowed me to avoid military traffic. “He thinks it was the last commercial jet to take off.

Just before, his colleague Uzair Khan, pilot of a B777 for Pakistan International Airlines, also had to “deal with the situation” with panicked passengers, which “also affected the crew”.

“Most were members of President (Ashraf) Ghani’s cabinet or his government. They fled the country with their families and urged us to take off as soon as possible,” he told AFP. “They were ready to leave Afghanistan at any cost.

Since then, Afghans have continued to flock to the airport gates hoping to board a plane. Those who often travel in crowds.

For the French colonel Yannick Desbois, commander of base 104, “you have to know how to keep a cool head, technically analyze the performance of the aircraft and only ship as many people as possible.

Typically an A400M has a capacity of 110 people. “There they shipped up to 235. People are sitting on the floor, under safe conditions“, To explain.

American C-17s are designed to carry up to 400 people seated on the ground, but one of them in the early hours of the airlift boarded 829.

On board, “people are tired. The pressure is falling (…). Usually they sleep and we do our job, ”says Commander Stephen.

More than 58,700 people they have been evacuated by plane since July, rather than during the airlift established from the base of Tan Son Nhut during the fall of Saigon in 1975.

AFP Agency. With Valérie Leroux and Zain Zaman Janjua

PB