Different Priority With President Biden, Chartered Plane To Evacuate US Citizens From Afghanistan Is Denied For Landing

Illustration of the evacuation of citizens from Afghanistan. (Twitter/@DefenceHQ)

JAKARTA - The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday denied the US landing rights for a charter plane carrying more than 100 citizens and Uncle Sam State Green Card holders who were evacuated from Afghanistan," said the flight organizer.

"They will not allow chartered aircraft on international flights into US airports," said Bryan Stern, founder of the non-profit group Project Dynamo, imitating the DHS Customs and Border Protection Agency.

Stern spoke from aboard a plane his group chartered from Kam Air, a private Afghan airline, which he said had sat for 14 hours at Abu Dhabi airport, after arriving from Kabul with 117 people, including 59 children.

His group is one of several to emerge from an ad hoc network of US military veterans, current and former US officials, and others formed to support US evacuation operations last month that they deem chaotic and disorganized.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were unfamiliar with the matter, but the US government usually takes time to verify charter aircraft manifests before allowing them to land in the United States.

Indeed, the administration of US President Joe Biden has said its top priority is, repatriating Americans and Green Card holders who were unable to leave Afghanistan in the US evacuation operation last month.

A senior State Department official said Monday the United States knows about 100 American citizens and permanent residents are officially ready to leave Afghanistan.

Twenty-eight Americans, 83 green card holders, and six people with US Special Immigration Visas granted to Afghans who worked for the US government during the 20-year war in Afghanistan were on the Kam Air flight, Stern said.

He had planned to transfer passengers to an Ethiopian Airlines chartered plane for onward flights to the United States, which he said Customs had permission to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

Customs then changed clearance to Dulles International Airport outside Washington before denying the plane landing rights anywhere in the United States, he said.

"I have a big, beautiful, gigantic, huge Boeing 787 that I can see parked in front of us. I have a crew. I have food," he explained.

Stern said intermediaries in Kabul had obtained permission from the Taliban-run Afghan Civil Aviation Authority for the groups to send chartered flights to pick up passengers from Kabul airport.