Plane carrying 100 Afghan evacuees being held by US at Abu Dhabi airport, organizer says
A US-bound charter plane carrying over 100 Afghan evacuees, including Americans, was being held Tuesday at a United Arab Emirates airport after its landing rights were revoked, flight organizers said.
The flight, chartered by nonprofit group Project Dynamo, departed Kabul airport and got held up for over 14 hours at Abu Dhabi airport with 117 people aboard, including 59 children, the group’s founder Bryan Stern told Reuters.
Stern said the plan was to transfer the passengers to a chartered Ethiopian Airlines plane for another flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens.
But the US Customs and Border Protection agency switched their clearance to Dulles International Airport outside Washington, before revoking landing rights anywhere in the US, according to Stern.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Six Americans, 83 green card holders and six people with US Special Immigration Visas are aboard the stalled flight, Stern said.
A Biden administration official told Reuters that it typically takes time to verify the manifests of charter planes before clearing them to land in the United States.
With Post wires
