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Zaki Anwari: Afghan killed in landing gear of US plane identified as teen footballer

Pilots were forced to make an emergency landing in a nearby country because they were unable to retract the landing gear

Warning: Graphic content 

Just days after a video of Afghan men falling to their deaths from a C-17 Globemaster III as it took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport terrified people, an even more horrifying video has started doing the rounds on social media. This one is perhaps even more horrific than our worst nightmares. Authorities discovered human remains inside the wheel well of a C-17 military plane fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan on Monday, August 16, 2021. 

The remains were later identified as Zaki Anwari, a 19-year-old former Afghan national youth team footballer. Anwari is believed to have been killed after clinging onto the plane, according to the The General Directorate of Physical Education & Sports of Afghanistan.

As per a report in the New York Post, the US Air Force plane had taken off in a rush from Kabul airport as thousands desperately tried to climb aboard - even running in front of it as it taxied down the runway. The United States Air Force (USAF) also reportedly confirmed that human remains were found in the wheel well of the C-17 aircraft that left Kabul, Afghanistan.

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You can watch the haunting video here:

"Horrific. The view of the men who latched on to the landing gear of the plane flying out of Kabul, before they fell off. This was worse than what happened in Saigon. Think twice collaborators, this is how the war machine rewards its allies," a user tweeted along with the video. 

The pilots were forced to make an emergency landing in a nearby country because they were unable to retract the landing gear. It was then that the remains were found inside the plane’s wheel well, as per sources. Reports reveal that the person, in a desperate attempt to leave the country after the Taliban's takeover, possibly climbed onto the landing gear and tried to stow away before the plane departed. 

The grim discovery was among the disturbing developments to emerge as Americans hurriedly evacuated the country. 

"The aircraft was surrounded by hundreds of Afghan civilians who had breached the airport perimeter," USAF reportedly said in a statement. "Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to depart the airfield as quickly as possible. Human remains were discovered in the wheel well of the C-17 after it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. The aircraft is currently impounded to provide time to collect the remains and inspect the aircraft before it is returned to flying status."

This tweet explains how the wheels of a US Air Force C-17 are retracted. "How a C17 retracts its wheels. Human remains were found inside the US Air Force C-17 transport plane’s wheel well after pilots were forced to make an emergency landing in a nearby country because they were unable to retract the landing gear," one user wrote, with an accompanying video. 

Social media is filled with reactions of people who are traumatized to even watch the video. "The desperation you need to have to clang onto the wheels of an ascending plane is heartbreaking," one user wrote. 

Yet another user wrote, "This is hard to watch! but I wish somebody told them that their decision to hang on a plane at several thousands meters high, with low oxygen, at hundreds of kms speed and strong winds on you, one has -1000% chances of surviving. They better had run to somewhere else."

The images of American helicopters ferrying diplomats and personnel from the US Embassy in Kabul to the airport prompted comparisons to the fall of Saigon in 1975 when the US military pulled out of Vietnam. 

Former President Donald Trump noted the history linking the two embarrassing evacuations. “What took place yesterday in Afghanistan made our withdrawal from Vietnam look like child’s play. Perhaps in World history, there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously,” he said in a statement sent via email, adding that President Biden has “brought great shame, in many ways, to our Country!”