FILE PHOTO: U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division patrol Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 17, 2021. Image taken on August 17, 2021.
US Air Force | Reuters
The Biden administration has informed U.S. commercial airlines that it could order them to help evacuate Afghanistan, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Defense Department on Friday informed several of the country’s major trading companies that it could activate the civilian reserve’s air fleet to help bolster air transport, the person said, adding that the flights would not be from Afghanistan itself. but from other places. This could include flying individuals trapped at U.S. bases in Germany, Qatar and Bahrain, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
The nearly 70-year-old civil reserve air fleet program was created after the Berlin Air Bridge, to support a “major national defense emergency.” Reasons include humanitarian or natural disasters and war.
The White House and the Department of Defense did not comment immediately.
The withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, announced by Biden earlier this year, has been plagued by chaos. Thousands of people flocked to Kabul airport after the Taliban took the city last week and sealed control of the country.
U.S. defense officials say the military is looking for alternative ways to get Americans, Afghans and third-country nationals to Kabul airport safely following Islamic State threats, it reported Saturday. NBC News.
The U.S. embassy in Afghanistan on Saturday warned U.S. citizens not to travel to the airport “because of potential security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport.”
A White House official reported Saturday in the press pool that in the past 24 hours, six U.S. C-17 soldiers and 32 leasehold letters have left Kabul. The total number of passengers on these 38 flights is approximately 3,800. The White House official says the U.S. has evacuated about 17,000 people since Aug. 14.
Several U.S. airlines had volunteered earlier in the week to help with the evacuation of evacuees, the person told CNBC.
The tender for the so-called CRAF flights opened on Saturday and would close on Monday for United Airlines flight attendants, its union, the Flight Assistants Association, wrote in a note.
“In order for United to be prepared in the event that the U.S. Department of Defense reports that United Airlines CRAF has been activated, a tender for CRAF operations must be made immediately and for a very short period of time,” says in the note.