KamAir plane loses power, pilot ‘glides’ into Kabul

A KamAir plane lost power while coming in to land at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Saturday, leaving passengers onboard shaken. 

One passenger, Stephanie Glinski, a Kabul-based journalist, said the engine also “spat fire”. 

In a post on Twitter, Glinski said: “Our (Kamair) plane engine just failed flying into Kabul, propeller stopped during flight and engine spat out fire. We landed!!!

She said fire trucks were on standby and immediately surrounded the plane after it landed. 

Also onboard the plane was Salahuddin Rabbani, leader of Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan party and a number of National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials. 

“We’re all shaking a bit. Pilot did great, he managed to land gliding down,” Glinski said.

The plane had taken off earlier Saturday in Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan province. Rabbani had been in Badakhshan to commemorate the 9th death anniversary of his father, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who served as Afghanistan’s president from 1992 to 1996.

The former president was assassinated in Kabul in 2011 when a suicide bomber entered his house.