Report: Body Found in Landing Gear of U.S. Transport After Kabul Takeoff

The Washington Post on Tuesday quoted unnamed U.S. officials who said human remains were found in the wheel well of a heavily-loaded C-17 transport plane that took off from the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday.

This was the same plane that reported having 800 people packed inside and from which several people were seen falling to their deaths.

According to the Washington Post’s sources, the massive C-17 plane first appeared in viral videos that showed a swarm of panicked Afghans running alongside as it taxied down the tarmac. The pilots told air traffic controllers they were carrying 800 passengers but their hasty estimate was a little high. A U.S. official told Defense One on Monday that “approximately 640 Afghan civilians disembarked the aircraft when it arrived at its destination.”

The crew said terrified Afghans flooded into the plane when its ramp was still only halfway down. Defense One’s source said the crew “made the decision to go” instead of attempting to force some of them off. 

C-17s can carry a large number of passengers using “floor loading” techniques, which essentially means hanging onto the cargo straps during flight. Under normal conditions, using seats on pallets in the middle of the plane and along its sides, the C-17 carries up to 188 passengers. Defense One said the current record using emergency floor loading was set in 2013 and stands at 670 passengers.

The U.S. military is reportedly “assessing the situation” for total casualties, but confirmed multiple individuals did fall from the plane after it took off, apparently having attempted to stow away inside the landing gear assembly.

This is an extremely dangerous but surprisingly persistent stowaway technique that kills an unknown number of people around the world every year. Civil aviation authorities say the exact number is difficult to determine because many of the would-be stowaways fall to their deaths during retraction or deployment of the landing gear. Others are killed by hypothermia, hypoxia, or the crushing power of the hydraulic systems.

One of the desperate refugees made it into the landing gear bay of the C-17 and caused an in-flight emergency when his body prevented the wheels from fully retracting.

“The crew diverted and landed in a nearby third country, and some human remains were found in the wheel well when it was inspected,” the Washington Post reported.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that reports of civilian deaths aboard flights departing Kabul are under investigation.

The UK Daily Mail on Tuesday said footage is circulating on the Internet “which appears to have been taken from a porthole in the rear door of a C-17 military plane” that purportedly shows a man caught in the landing gear as the aircraft takes off. The authenticity of this video has not been verified.