Civil Reserve Air Fleet Activated

The Pentagon has ordered US commercial airlines to provide planes to help speed up Afghanistan evacuation efforts, it said Sunday. This effort will help transport Afghan evacuees as the military manages the swarms of people following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

The White House summoned the Civil Reserve Air Fleet on Sunday, which was created to assist the military during emergencies in 1952.

The activation is for 18 aircraft: three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, and Omni Air; two from Hawaiian Airlines; and four from United Airlines.

The civilian planes will not be flying directly into Afghanistan but instead relieving pressure off bases in Qatar, Bahrain, and Germany. The bases are fast filling up with evacuees as the US expands its efforts to fly them out of Kabul. Many Afghans are at risk of retaliation from the Taliban for relations with the US.

At least 28,000 people have been evacuated since the Taliban began its advance on Kabul, according to President Biden on Sunday, with 11,000 of those evacuations taking place over 36 hours this weekend.

On Friday US officials revealed that a number of countries will assist the US including Germany. The first evacuee flight arrived there with about 350 people.

"It's an incredible operation," Biden said. But, he added, "the evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss," Biden said.

FMI: www.transportation.gov/mission/administrations/intelligence-security-emergency-response/civil-reserve-airfleet-allocations