When bombs explode at Kabul airport, Bundeswehr pilot Michael M. is just approaching the city. A conversation about the historical evacuation mission, comrades left behind and dramatic hours at the airport.
Interview by
Nico Fried and Mike Szymanski
It was the largest evacuation operation in the history of the Bundeswehr. Captain Michael M., A400M-Pilot from Lufttransportgeschwader 62 in Wunstorf, has completed four of the 37 flights from Kabul with which the Bundeswehr took German citizens, former Afghan aid workers and other vulnerable people out of the country when the Taliban took control there again. The airport in Tashkent served as a hub for the airlift, where the Bundeswehr alone flew out 5,347 people in August. In conversation with the Süddeutsche Zeitung the 47-year-old captain reports on dramatic hours at and above Kabul airport.