Zabi Rezayee, 17, was one of the desperate civilians who clung to the landing gear and wheel covers of a US Air Force C-17 as it taxied down the runway at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021 — to fall until his death on the tarmac, his father told the Sunday Times of London. And Zabi’s brother Zaki, 19, who was involved in his escape attempt from the Taliban, has not been heard from since, Mohammed Rezayee said.
“I’m in pain, I’m angry, but I can’t do anything,” Rezayee, 42, said. “I buried one son and I don’t even know if the other is dead or alive.” Terrifying cellphone videos of the young men who grabbed the giant cargo plane on takeoff and then fell helplessly to the ground as it gained height have gripped the world as America’s war in Afghanistan came to a chaotic and ignominious end. At least five would-be stowaways were killed, although the exact number was never determined. Two landed in a residential neighborhood, splattering blood all over a homeowner’s roof. One was found crushed in the plane’s wheel well when it landed in Qatar. Zabi Rezayee’s father, Mohammed, questioned why the US military left Hamid Karzai International Airport with evacuees “holding up the plane”. Ben Shread/MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images And two, including Zambi, fell back onto the catwalk. “I blame the pilot and I blame the Americans who were responsible for the security of the airport,” Rezayee, a father of eight, said bitterly. “Why did the pilot make the decision to take off when he knew people were holding the aircraft?” asked the distraught dad. “I don’t think the people who were clinging on really thought the plane was going to leave.” A US Marine grabs an infant over a barbed wire fence during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 19, 2021. Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images The Air Force cleared the aircrew of wrongdoing last month, Military.com reported. The teenagers did not tell their parents about their plans to leave the country. “I found out when they got a call at the airport,” their father said. “They sounded excited, they said they were going to get on the plane. I was happy for them, happy that they were leaving for a safe place because we were all so terrified of what was going to happen here with the Taliban in control.” The call only lasted a minute or two. “That was the last time I spoke to them,” he said. A few minutes later, a stranger called Rezayee from Zabi’s phone. “The guy on my son’s phone said they found Zabi’s dead body,” Rezayee told Vice News this week. He ran the four miles to the airport. “I found him in pieces.” Someone had draped a scarf over the teenager’s bare, broken lower half. But the father’s search of Kabul hospitals and prisons turned up no sign of Zaki, his eldest boy. “Until today, I have never received any information about Zaki,” she said. His “distraught” wife “says a little prayer every time she hears her phone ring, desperately hoping it’s news.” “It’s not knowing that’s the hardest thing to deal with,” he said. “They were polite boys. They loved playing football,” Rezayee recalled. “They were educated. Zaki could speak English. He used to teach his younger brothers a little.’ Civilians have faced droughts and famine conditions since the Taliban took over.JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images The family has struggled as the Taliban’s grip has driven half the country’s population to near starvation. Without his sons’ help, Rezayee said, he would no longer be able to run his fruit and vegetable shop. “It feels like a waste of time to be angry about my sons. I have to use this energy to find a way to support my remaining children,” she said. “But I would give anything to find out what happened to Zaki.”