An Afghan youth footballer, Zaki Anwari has passed away after falling from a US plane airlifting people out of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
Anwari, who played for the country’s national youth team had clinged onto the USAF Boeing C-17 which was evacuating people from the Kabul International airport, but fell off the plane.
Since the Taliban seized the Afghan capital on Sunday, crowds have been gathering at the city’s airport in a bid to flee the country. Amid chaotic scenes over the week, hundreds of people were seen running alongside a US Air Force plane as it gathered speed on the runway while several men clung on to the sides.
Confirming the incidence, the General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports of Afghanistan, said that Anwari was among the people who lost their lives in the mayhem that erupted at the airport in the capital this week.
“Anwari, like thousands of Afghan youths, wanted to leave the country but fell off a US plane and died,” the group said in a statement posted on Facebook.
It was gathered that Anwari attempted to hold on to the outside of the American military aircraft as it departed from airport.
The C-17 aircraft which Anwari held on to carried an estimated 640 people, which is more than five times its suggested payload. Hundreds of residence in Kabul had flooded the plane’s side in order to escape from the city.
The US Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI), in its reaction also said it has commenced review and investigation on the incident regarding a C-17 aircraft, as well as the loss of civilian lives.
According to reports, about five people also lost their lives in the chaos while scores of people sustained various degrees of injuries.
