Inside that C17
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The pilot of that airplane is a great guy
He didn't have to save all those people
C17s lived at Martinsburg, WV when I was flying in there regularly
I always made the same comment when I was advised they were in the vicinity
ATC: 3504L you are following a C-17 at your 12 O'Clock, advise when you have traffic in sight
Me: Martinsburg tower, 3504L has the traffic, it is beautiful
Of course the C17 pilot never acknowledged that, but he/she heard it
image url)Inside Reach 871, A US C-17 Packed With 640 Afghans Trying to Escape the Taliban
The Air Force evacuation flight from Kabul to Qatar came near the record for most people ever flown in the Boeing airlifter.
A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III safely evacuated some 640 Afghans from Kabul late Sunday, according to U.S. defense officials and photos obtained by Defense One.
That’s believed to be among the most people ever flown in the C-17, a massive military cargo plane that has been operated by the U.S. and its allies for nearly three decades. Flight tracking software shows the plane belongs to the 436th Air Wing, based at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
The C-17, using the call sign Reach 871, was not intending to take on such a large load, but panicked Afghans who had been cleared to evacuate pulled themselves onto the C-17’s half-open ramp, one defense official said.
Instead of trying to force those refugees off the aircraft, “the crew made the decision to go,” a defense official told Defense One. “Approximately 640 Afghan civilians disembarked the aircraft when it arrived at its destination,” the defense official said.
Word of the flight spread across late Sunday in the United States when audio from the crew estimating they were carrying 800 passengers was posted online. A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the true number was about 640 people.
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@copper said in Inside that C17:
Instead of trying to force those refugees off the aircraft, “the crew made the decision to go,” a defense official told Defense One. “Approximately 640 Afghan civilians disembarked the aircraft when it arrived at its destination,” the defense official said.
(Devil's Advocate here)
Nice. But...
640 people at 180 lb each. That's about 60 tons of humans.
Load: 102 troops/paratroops; 36 litter and 54 ambulatory patients and attendants; 170,900 pounds (77,519 kilograms) of cargo (18 pallet positions)
https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1529726/c-17-globemaster-iii/
It's a good thing they stayed below the designated load limit for the C17.
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@copper said in Inside that C17:
I assume he broke some rules.
I hope they don't crucify him for that or because those people fell off.
I hope the load distribution (fore to aft) was safe as well.
Was this the same aircraft that had people in the wheel wells?
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I believe this was the plane that you have seen so much on TV today. The one with a crowd chasing it on the taxiway.
Then, supposedly, either 2 or 3 people were filmed falling off that plane. I'm not sure if it was confirmed that those were people falling.
And the term "wheel well" has been used a little loosely today. I'm not sure what the right term is for that plane, but the guys hanging on the side looked like they were on a structure/door that is over the wheels.
If that is a door and the door closed when the wheels came up and those guys where somehow hanging on to the door, they would have lost their perch. And they better learn to flap their wings real fast.
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@copper said in Inside that C17:
ATC: 3504L you are following a C-17 at your 12 O'Clock, advise when you have traffic in sight
Me: Martinsburg tower, 3504L has the traffic, it is beautiful
Of course the C17 pilot never acknowledged that, but he/she heard itThat was very cool, that you said that, Copper.
