After Afghans fell from plane, families live with horror

By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — It’s an image that has come to symbolize America’s chaotic end to 20 years of war in Afghanistan: a lumbering U.S. Air Force C-17 taking off from Kabul’s International Airport, chased by thousands of desperate Afghan men, scrambling to get on the departing aircraft and escape Taliban rule. As the plane gains altitude and its wheels retract, the world watches in horror as what appears to be two men, who had been clinging to the aircraft, plunge to earth. More than a month later, much remains unclear about what happened in that tragic takeoff on Aug. 16, a day after the Taliban swept into Kabul.