This morning, two Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft departed from the military airport of Melsbroek, Belgium destination Islamabad, Pakistan. On board a consular and a preparation team, together with much needed equipment. A fuel stop is scheduled to refuel the aircraft for this 10-hour trip.
Later this afternoon, the new Airbus A400M, which will carry out the actual evacuation mission from Afghanistan will depart destination Dubai, United Arab Emirates with a detachment of about 15 military personnel. This aircraft can transport 100 passengers.
The evacuation mission has been scheduled for Friday morning. “In total, about eighty soldiers are deployed in this mission,” Colonel Geert De Decker explains to the press.
Once landed, the aircraft have to wait for permission to fly to Kabul, Afghanistan: “we have been given four different time slots on Friday morning,” Colonel De Decker says, “they are now on their way to Greece for a stopover because those C130 cannot make the flight in one go. They will land tomorrow in Islamabad to fly to Kabul on Friday morning".
"We also don’t know yet whether we will be able to evacuate people from Kabul with that first flight, that will depend on the contacts that the people of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been able to make with the people on site,” De Decker concludes.
On Monday afternoon, the Kern cabinet decided to deploy three Defense transport aircraft for the evacuation of Belgians, their family members, Afghan employees such as interpreters and fixers and women’s and human rights activists.
Belgium sends one A400M and two C130 planes to Kabul for an evacuation mission
