Afghanistan crisis: Afghan footballer Zaki Anwari died in midair fall from US plane at Kabul airport

In a video from Afghanistan’s Kabul that had shocked one and all, at least three were shown to have fallen from the US aircraft C-17 Globemaster midair soon after the plane took off from Kabul airport as they had clung to the underbelly of the plane in an attempt to flee the country on Monday (August 16). 

Now, reports have confirmed that one of the three was a former Afghan national youth team footballer, Zaki Anwari.

The 19-year-old footballer died on Monday after falling from a US military aircraft, a Facebook page about the Afghan national football team announced on August 18. The news was confirmed by the General Directorate of Physical Education & Sports in Afghanistan, as per France 24.

The teenager had been called up to the national youth team as a 16-year-old. People have been paying tributes to the young footballer on social media.

US officials are doing due diligence to better understand how events unfolded.

Other horrific images emerged from the Kabul Airport where several people died amid stampede and chaos when desperate Afghans were clinging on to either the undercarriage of the C-17 or the landing gear of the transport plane when they got flung out due to the huge G-force exerted during take-off.

With ANI inputs