Corpse Of Desperate Afghan Found Lodged In US Plane's Landing Gear Amid Chaos To Flee Taliban Rule

A body of an Afghan desperate to flee the country was found in the wheel well of a U.S. military plane amid the chaos of the Taliban regaining control of its capital city Kabul, the U.S. Air Force bared on Tuesday.

The grim discovery was made hours after the American C-17 transport aircraft had departed the Hamid Karzai International Airport, making the carrier temporarily inoperable, Politico reported.

Disturbing videos that circulated online showed throngs of Afghanistan nationals clinging to planes such as the U.S. military C-17 cargo jets as they attempted to take off, with some even falling mid-air from a plane leaving the airport.

"Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to depart the airfield as quickly as possible," according to an Air Force statement.

According to the New York Daily News, at least seven people were reported to have died from these incidents. However, the Air Force conceded more lives were possibly lost.

Some 5,000 additional troops were deployed to Kabul to help secure the airport as U.S soldiers conducted a rescue mission to get thousands of American citizens, embassy staffers, and vulnerable Afghans out of the country.

The Pentagon expected that by Monday, about 3,000 U.S troops would have arrived at the Kabul international airport, with the rest touching down in the coming days.

The Defense Department moved to temporarily halt military and civilian flights to clear the tarmac of the desperate civilians scrambling to abandon their helpless homeland, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told the media.

The Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations has since announced a probe into civilian deaths related to C-17 flights leaving the airport, NBC News noted.

The department also confirmed that one U.S. service member was injured following “hostile threats." Two gunmen were killed in separate incidents after each opened fire at authorities.

By late Monday, the U.S. resumed its military operations out of the airport, with the arrival of C-17s carrying Marines and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division.

On Sunday, at least 640 Afghans packed a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III from the 436th Air Wing based at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Nine C-17 Globemaster IIIs arrived in Kabul over the weekend to deliver equipment and about 1,000 troops.

The C-17, using the call sign Reach 871, is designed to seat only around 100 troops with their equipment but can carry a maximum payload capacity of 170,900 pounds.