US: 9-month-old girl on flight carrying Afghan evacuees dies after landing in Philadelphia

A 9-month-old baby who became unresponsive on a flight carrying Afghan evacuees has died after landing in Philadelphia, the US Department of Defence said on Thursday, 2 September 2021. The incident marked the first known death of an evacuee on US soil. According to CNN, Chris Mitchell, a spokesman for the Defence Department, said that the girl was on a C-17 flying from Germany to Philadelphia International Airport when she became unresponsive. 

Mitchell said that the flight landed in Philadelphia around 9:15 (local time) after which the emergency medical technicians and an interpreter met the aircraft. The child and father were then transported to a children’s hospital where the girl was pronounced dead. A spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department said that officers responded to a call of sudden infant death and were met at the hospital by agents from the US Customs and Border Protection, who said the girl had "suffered a medical emergency”. 

It is worth mentioning that the Philadelphia airport has reportedly processed around 3,654 evacuees from Afghanistan who arrived between August 28 and September 1. It is one of the two airports participating in the evacuation effort, along with Dulles International Airport in Virginia. According to official data, as of Tuesday, the US had admitted nearly 24,000 of the at-risk Afghans it airlifted from Kabul. 

On the other hand, the Ramstein Airbase in Germany, where the infant was travelling from, is one of the largest US air bases outside America and has become a crucial hub for the evacuation from Afghanistan following the Taliban take over. Since August 20, about 106 planes have landed there. As of Wednesday, almost 12,000 evacuees had left the base, while another 14,900 remained. According to CNN, the number of evacuees to have arrived at Germany’s Ramstein Airbase so far is nearly triple the population of the German municipality that hosts the base. 

End of US mission in Kabul 

Meanwhile, the US is relying on third countries as temporary stops before Afghans fly to the United States or other countries. Afghans are currently being processed and vetted before continuing their journeys. Some are travelling to the US, where officials are using military bases to house evacuees. 

The US troops made their final exit from the war-torn country on the night of August 30. Biden had informed that over 120,000 US, foreign and Afghan citizens had been evacuated from Afghanistan. He said that ending the airlift mission as planned was the best way to protect the lives of troops, and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead.

(Image: AP/Unsplash)