How does the UK evacuate people from Afghanistan?
Squadron Leader Bird is responsible for the passenger handling facility at Kabul Airport. She explains the process from check-in to take-off
“Every single passenger that is flying on a British aircraft comes through us at the terminal.
“When a bus arrives with a load of passengers on it, they are met by the Royal Air Force Police. They are informed of a couple of things, and then after that brief we get on with the processing. So a family group will come through and they will be met again by the RAF Police.
“The first thing that we do is we weigh their bag to make sure that it is within ten kilos. I know that may sound harsh, but actually it is to ensure we can get as many passengers onto our jets as possible. After that, they will come up to one of the desks and as a family they will be searched. Once we are happy that the whole group are safe and they haven’t got anything they shouldn’t have, we take them through to check-in.
“Check-in is the responsibility of the British Army’s Royal Logistics Corps, and we have three desks. This is essentially an old-fashioned version of what you get at any other airport and that is because right here, right now, we don’t have access to the internet to do it any other way. Every single person has their passport checked.
“Once they are checked in, it is through to the departure lounge. It is quite a large area, so that plenty of people can come and sit and relax whilst they wait for their flight. We also have some other areas for families to sit in as well. Our families’ areas are very basic but it’s a little less scary if you have got kids to come and just sit out of the way, relax and wait for your flight somewhere where you feel safe.
“Once we are ready for them, the RAF movers will call them forward and just like any other flight, you go to the departures gate.
On the other side of the gate is a bus, and we will take them on the bus straight to the aircraft where again the movers will check that we have the right number of people, before they are loaded on, handed over to the Captain and flown out of the country.”
