U.S. Flight From Kabul Almost Disaster : Pilot Avoids Head-on Crash as Last 11 Americans Depart Kabul

NEW DELHI —  The evacuation flight carrying the last 11 U.S. Embassy staffers out of the besieged Afghan capital narrowly missed a head-on collision with a Soviet transport plane today, the two most senior American diplomats said.

“We had a near-collision 10 minutes after takeoff with an incoming flight from the north,” Jon D. Glassman, charge d’affaires at the closed U.S. Embassy in Kabul, said after arriving in New Delhi.

Jim Schumaker, the second-ranking diplomat at the embassy, said the Americans’ chartered Indian Airlines flight came within a mile of a head-on collision with the Soviet IL-76 transport plane.

“Air traffic control at Kabul is never very good,” Schumaker said.

Both diplomats praised the captain of the Indian Airlines Boeing 737 for his quick and expert action in avoiding a collision.

“We drank a champagne toast after crossing the Afghan border,” Schumaker said.

The State Department ordered the U.S. Embassy’s two diplomats, four Marine guards and five-member support staff to leave Kabul because of fears the Afghan army could not protect foreign diplomats after the Red Army withdraws.

ui Embassy staff members traveled to Kabul airport today in two bulletproof jeeps escorted by an Afghan army car.

At the airport, Glassman said the embassy would reopen when peace is restored to Afghanistan.

“We’ll be back in a few months,” he said.