Insights from the captain.
B777 safely arrived for extradition flight.
Everything went smoothly until the afternoon when the plane was scheduled to depart.
The ATC at Kabul had to evacuate and relocate to a mobile unit, while the traffic was told to wait.
Things got weird, people running around. Captain contacted Pakistan.
Kabul shut down civilian traffic. Captain asked if he could do pushback and start engines at least. He was allowed.
He taxied to the runway but once again was denied takeoff. Pilot made a decision with his team that if things get rough he will take off unauthorized to save the lives of the people on board the aircraft.
Kabul ATC shutdown completely and everybody was left to their own. He saw military aircraft flying on their own, found a nice window and took off.
Due to good weather he used his skills to manage VFR flight amid the chaos around Kabul. Once past 15K feet was able to connect to regional Kabul ATC and they guided him to Pakistan airspace.
