Duchess of Cambridge meets military and civilians involved in Kabul evacuation

The Duchess of Cambridge has congratulated the heroes of a challenging evacuation from Kabul, as she visited Brize Norton to meet those who saved the lives of civilians.

The Duchess, wearing a cream blazer, wide-legged black trousers and high heels, was greeted with a salute on the ground at the airbase, before meeting those who supported the UK’s mission to evacuate from Afghanistan in Operation Pitting.

The evacuation, the largest humanitarian aid operation since the Second World War, saw some 15,000 people were flown out of Kabul by the Royal Air Force.

More than 850 people arrived at RAF Brize Norton over the course of the two weeks, where they were given food, clothing, children’s toys, medical support, and childcare and sanitary products while their details were processed.

The visit has echoes of the King’s visit to returning troops from Dunkirk in 1940, when the then-Princess Elizabeth sent sweets for British and French soldiers

During the visit, the Duchess heard how an RAF pilot narrowly missed a bus full of people as he flew a plane carrying 377 refugees out of Kabul airport.

‘That was quite scary’

Wing Commander Kev Latchman told her how he had to make a snap decision to take off early to avoid hitting the bus as it drove across the runway in front of him.

He ended up missing it by just 10ft.

“That was quite scary,” he said.

Wing Commander Latchman, the officer commandeering 99 Squadron, did three flights out of Kabul.

He said later: “On my second flight, a bus drove out in front of me while I was on my take off run.

“At 95 knots we saw the bus, and then it turned on to the runway. I was like, ‘OK, that’s definitely not stopping’. At that point I wasn’t able to reject the take off so I wouldn’t have been able to slam on the brakes and stop, I would have hit the bus.

“After that I was committed to taking off and I was hoping that I could get enough speed for take off.

“Literally a moment later I realised I wasn’t going to be able to get up to the nominated take off speed and so I had to gently raise the nose to clear the bus.

“We normally take off at 125 knots, and I had to take off at 110 knots to miss the bus. We have had all the data back now, and we were less than 10ft over the top of the bus.

“We had 377 people on board, and I’m glad that I’m stood here right now.”