US considers ordering commercial airlines
to help in Afghan evacuation
Wall Street Journal,
by
Gordon Lubold
&
Alison Sider
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
8/22/2021 12:18:20 AM
The Biden administration is planning a dramatic ramp-up of its airlift from Kabul by making preparations to compel major U.S. airlines to help with the transportation of tens of thousands of evacuees from Afghanistan, while expanding the number of U.S. military bases that could house Afghans.
The White House is expected to consider activating the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, or CRAF, created in 1952 in the wake of the post-World War II Berlin Airlift, to provide nearly 20 commercial jets from up to five airlines to augment U.S. military efforts to transport Afghan evacuees from bases in the region, according to U.S. officials.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
my2sense 8/22/2021 12:32:38 AM (No. 888004)
All very well but does no good if refugees, American (and there are lots of Americans this debacle left behind) or Afghans can't reach the airport to use the planes.
14 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
NYBruin 8/22/2021 12:35:14 AM (No. 888007)
A Talib with an RPG would love to fire it an airline with AMERICAN painted on the fuselage.
16 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
jalo1951 8/22/2021 12:38:08 AM (No. 888011)
Evil abounds in Afghanistan. Planes flying out loaded with Americans and those who helped American would make a tempting target. I can only wonder if some of the equipment left would be capable of bringing down one of those planes? While it would not be on the scale of 9/11 it certainly would be a huge blow. Biden has certainly f*** up big time.
18 people like this.
You still only have one runway, no fuel and physical access controlled by the Tallybon. It doesn't matter how many planes you fly in. More nonsense to make it sound like they are doing something.
By most accounts, most of the airplanes flying out are far less than at capacity.
23 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 8/22/2021 1:00:58 AM (No. 888023)
In a word, "No"
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
bighambone 8/22/2021 1:11:47 AM (No. 888027)
Biden will need those civilian planes to fly out all the vulnerable Afghans, especially the Afghan LGBTQ community to the USA. That community will suddenly grow exponentially once young Afghans figure out that claiming to be a LGBTQ member is a “free” ticket to the USA.
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Geoman 8/22/2021 1:47:05 AM (No. 888033)
This would have been a great idea three weeks ago as you would have had military air capabilities at Bagram to support the evacuation, providing both transport and air cover, as not all Americans needing to leave are in Kabul. Commercial aircraft used on transcontinental flights do not have the short field take off and landing capability or the ability to pop chaff flares, which are essential in combat zones like in Kabul where you don't control the ground outside the perimeter of the airport and are susceptible to the thousands of man portable rockets and heavy automatic weapons Biden left behind. Lose a packed triple 7 from one of main legacy carriers to ground fire and we'll get to see if President Harris can mess things up worse than Biden.
18 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
mifla 8/22/2021 5:10:21 AM (No. 888074)
In a related story, the Taliban has announced the creation of Afghan Airlines, complete with modern planes seized from the Great Satan.
12 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
anniebc 8/22/2021 7:10:13 AM (No. 888135)
Costing US more money. Maybe you should fall on your knees and beg the Taliban to give us back our stuff.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 8/22/2021 8:03:17 AM (No. 888191)
Stay tuned, folks - - for the Dunkirk Part II!
Only this time the action will be in the air - - and the result not as successful.
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
downnout 8/22/2021 8:34:14 AM (No. 888229)
I don’t think POTUS has the “right” to order a company to put their assets in harms way. He may ask, but order?
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
GO3 8/22/2021 8:49:49 AM (No. 888252)
The amount of money would be astronomical even if the challenges #7 mentions could be overcome. And the airlines would say "no." During deployment for the Gulf War, high value insurance was paid and that was flying in to a relatively stable area. A CRAF plane would get as far as Doha, and incoming/outgoing flights would still consist of military aircraft.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/22/2021 10:40:22 AM (No. 888421)
It gets better and better, ordering civilian pilots to face possible SAM fire as they hightail it in and out of Kabul. You can't order such a thing you blithering idiots.
2 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
lakerman1 8/22/2021 10:47:15 AM (No. 888436)
The USAF used to have the Military Air Transport Service, MATS, which was cut back by Robert McNamara, in the interests of efficiency.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
AbingtonJim 8/22/2021 11:19:05 AM (No. 888476)
Just saw on Twitter that 18 civilian aircraft have been ordered into service presumably to assist withdrawal efforts in Afghanistan..
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Toodles3956 8/22/2021 12:12:26 PM (No. 888557)
Those planes would not be flying into Afghanistan. They would relieve the other countries airports that are taking the refugees. Those airports are out of room for people. Our planes would be moving those people to other places.
1 person likes this.
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