Revealed: Two stowaways who fell to their deaths from US evacuation flight from Kabul were 'teenage brothers who would sell watermelon and scavenge through bins to provide for their mother'
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Two stowaways who plummeted to their deaths from an airborne plane in Kabul on Monday were impoverished teenage bothers who sold watermelons at Kabul's central market, according to reports on Afghan social media.
Video from Hamid Karzai International Airport on the day showed Afghans desperately scrambling to escape the city by clinging onto the evacuating U.S. military aircraft after the Taliban took control of the country.
But in horrifying footage taken from below the plane, at least two people were seen falling through the air from the C-17 aircraft after it had taken off. Three who clung to the outside of the aircraft are believed to have died.
According to the reports two - aged just 16 and 17 - who sold fruit and scavenged in the bins of Kabul's markets to provide for their mother, who is now left with no other children after they fell to their deaths.
The bodies of the teenagers - believed to be brothers - have been returned to their parents, the reports said.
The identities of the people who fell from the C-17 are officially unknown, but one Twitter user posted later that the teenagers were his aunt's neighbors.
'Genuinely in tears right now. Two young boys who fell whilst clinging onto U.S. planes were my Aunts neighbors. Both boys aged 16 & 17, bodies have just been brought home to their parents,' the user wrote on Monday.
'Both boys would sell watermelons in Kabul markets and feed off the bins to survive and provide for their mother. The 2 boys were their mother's only children. She has no other family and has no idea how she will survive under Taliban regime.'
Separate footage was captured on Monday by one of a dozen men who were seen on wheel housing of the American C-17 military transport plane as it taxied towards the runway. A number of those seen in the video look to be young men, clinging on for dear life and watching as crowds of people lined the tarmac.
It is not known what became of the man who filmed the video or those who appeared in it, but horrifying footage taken on board a similar jet reveals how one was crushed to death in the landing gear - his legs dangling sickeningly from the side of the aircraft.
The horrifying scenes will likely become the defining image of America and NATO's withdrawal from Afghanistan, a debacle that has seen President Biden accused of 'humiliating' his country on the world stage and western allies shamed for 'abandoning' Afghans who assisted their failed fight to install democracy in the country.
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