Pictures and videos of the interiors of a packed US Air Force cargo plane have gone viral on social media. Reportedly 640 passengers boarded the plane to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country. The photos were obtained by news and analysis website Defense One. 

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In the picture, one can see hundreds of people, some sitting, some on their feet, crammed in the cargo plane. Defense One in its report states that the plane is a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III that evacuated approximately  640 Afghans from Kabul late Sunday. Citing a flight tracking software it added that the aircraft belongs to the 436th Air Wing based at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base.

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“The  C-17 did not want to fly so many people but panicked Afghans who had been cleared to evacuate pulled themselves onto the C-17’s half-open ramp. The crew made the decision to go instead of trying to force the Afghans off the aircraft,” a defence official told Defense One.

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“Approximately 640 Afghan civilians disembarked the aircraft when it arrived at its destination,” the defence official added.

Reports earlier in the day had suggested that the flight was carrying 800 passengers. However, the defence official confirmed that the true number was about 640 people.

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On Monday, several pictures and videos, showing distress in Afghanistan, floated on the internet. 

A video of at least three people, who reportedly held on to the wings of a US plane, falling down midair to their deaths after the aircraft took off from Kabul airport went viral. Pictures of huge crowds and chaos at Kabul airport were also posted on social media. 

The Taliban, capturing Afghanistan’s provincial capitals one by one, seized control of the country’s capital Kabul on Sunday. Afghani President Ashraf Ghani first resigned and then fled the country.