The U.S. Air Force has confirmed that human remains were found in the wheel bay of a military transport aircraft that took off from an airport in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul in the wake of the panic over the takeover of the Taliban, NBC and CBS News reported Wednesday.
The plane, a C-17 Globemaster, had been swarmed by hundreds of individuals on the tarmac as it departed from Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. The discovery of the bodies was made as the plane landed at al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday.
According to a U.S. defense official, the people swarming the plane had broken through the runway from the non-personnel side of the airport. Airport operations were canceled for hours due to the crush of Afghan civilians desperate to flee the capital.
Air Force officials said the discovery of remains as well as online videos showing people falling off the aircraft as it took off has prompted the Air Force Office of Special Investigations to evaluate all available information to get a clearer understanding of how the incident unraveled.
"OSI is leading the review in coordination with the U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command and international partners since it involves the loss of life on U.S. military aircraft," Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in a statement.
While the Air Force did not immediately confirm any number of fatalities, it all but conceded that lives were lost, NBC said.
The Globemaster was impounded as part of Air Force protocols to provide time to collect the remains and inspect the aircraft before it resumes flight.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the U.S. will soon have the capability to evacuate 5,000 to 9,000 people a day now being transported on passenger and military planes -- but most of that depends on if the Taliban will give the clearance for commercial aircraft to leave Afghanistan.
The Afghan government collapsed on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation and the Taliban took control of Kabul and the presidential palace without any resistance. They said "war is over" as soon as they settled inside the palace.
