Afghanistan s Falling Man: The 17-Year-Old Soccer Star Who Plunged From a U.S. Military Jet – WSJ

Hundreds of Afghans swarmed the runway of Hamid Karzai International Airport attempting to climb onto a taxiing 140-ton U.S. Air Force transport plane. Two Apache helicopters buzzed low to disperse them.

Powering through the scrum in a green tunic, 17-year-old Zaki Anwari made his way to the front and clambered onto the plane s landing gear. As it accelerated past 120 miles an hour, he held tight.

Hours earlier, as the Taliban began its first morning in charge of Kabul, Mr. Anwari, a high-school senior and attacking midfielder for the national youth soccer team, phoned his brother to tell him that if he didn t flee Afghanistan he would never play again.

Do not go, go back, you are smart, don t go, his elder brother Zakir said.

I have to try, Mr. Anwari replied.

Millions of people saw footage of what happened next: a defining image from America s chaotic exit from a 20-year war that had an unsettling resonance with the 9/11 attacks that ignited it. As the C-17 Globemaster III arched skyward over Kabul, Mr. Anwari fell.

Inside the cockpit, the crew had made a snap decision to take off to escape the surrounding crowd. Mr. Anwari, nicknamed Shield for his ability to keep the ball, couldn t hold on.

They are falling over there, a bystander said in one video shot from the runway, as a crowd ran toward the silhouettes falling to the ground. Oh, my God, he said.

via www.wsj.com