The First Steps – Reporting from Afghanistan

The flight was quite something! The icy air flowing from the air conditioning system at the cruising altitude put the soldiers to the test indeed, as they were dressed properly to the weather “below", wearing thin jackets and bulletproof vests. True, their garment was better than the T-shirt I wore aboard, being seated next to an air inlet. It was long ago that I was so delighted to experience the +40 degrees Celsius with dust getting into the cargo hold of the two-engine aircraft after the ramp was lowered.

After a long ground run, the plane took off and soon climbed to a comfortable cruising altitude. Before long, the napping passengers woke up to some sharper turning maneuvers of the quickly descending aircraft. Although the self-protection (anti-missile-countermeasure) containers of the plane were not activated to disperse flares, during the steep approach the aircraft was flying with a yaw motion for several minutes, which presumably was not what the pilots intended. Following the ear-popping approach with a steep angle and a slight bouncing back after the first touchdown, the landing gears were rolling on the tarmac.

The National Support Element received the personnel on their way home, just like the soldiers of the third rotation of the Mi-17 Air Advisory Team which had arrived two days earlier. The soldiers are now one step closer to their loved ones and homes.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi

Click on our gallery for more pictures!