OUR COMMUNITY

W

hen Delta Air Lines 
put out a call for 
crews to operate an 
urgent flight out of Germany, 
which at the time was simply 
coded as a “military operation,
” 
Southfield-based pilot Captain 
Alexander Kahn happened 
to have a few free days in his 
monthly schedule.
“I accepted the rotation,
” 
Kahn, 52 and a member of 
Southfield’s Young Israel syn-
agogue, says. What the pilot 
didn’t know is that he would 
be flying a plane full of Afghan 
refugees escaping the violence 
and chaos of Taliban-controlled 
Afghanistan to the U.S. for 
freedom.
Prior to the flight, which 
completed the mission in late 
August, several Delta crews met 
in New York’s JFK airport to fly 
an empty plane to Frankfurt, 
Germany. “There was much 
chatter as we introduced our-
selves and tried to figure out 
what the flights were all about,
” 
Kahn recalls.
The pilot, who has been 
flying commercial airlines for 
21 years and Delta’s mainline 
for seven years, says there was 
speculation over whether the 
crews would be transporting 
active-duty soldiers back from 
a training exercise or mission, 

or family members returning 
to the U.S. after a three-year 
assignment in Germany.
Yet with the Afghanistan 
crisis central in the news, Kahn 
realized that the flight could 
in fact be transporting civil-
ians who escaped its capital of 
Kabul. “That first night, nobody 
knew for sure,
” he remembers. 
“
After we arrived in Germany, 
the general feeling was that this 
was most likely an evacuation 
flight.
”

GATHERING SUPPLIES 
FOR EVACUEES
While Delta is known for oper-
ating regional and international 
flights, the airline also handles 
sports charters and military 
charters. As the crew touched 
down at Germany’s Ramstein 
Air Base, which serves as head-
quarters for the U.S. Air Force 
in Europe, they quickly got to 
work preparing the flight.
Pilots reviewed paperwork 
and programming, while flight 
attendants prepared the cabin 
for passengers. Ground support 
teams got everything ready for 
takeoff. However, as realization 
dawned that this was an evacu-
ation flight for Afghan refugees, 
who left their lives behind and 
escaped Afghanistan by the 
thousands without preparation, 

it became clear that supplies 
were needed.
Without prompting, flight 
attendants stepped in to sup-
port the evacuees. “
At dinner 
the night before, we all brain-
stormed what the needs might 
be,
” Kahn says. “Not knowing 
the exact circumstances, our 
flight attendants theorized that 
the evacuees might have run 
with only what they could carry 
and there might not have been 
a chance to bathe since evacu-
ating.
”
This meant children, in par-
ticular, would be without cru-
cial supplies like diapers, toys 
and other distractions to help 
soothe them during a physically 
and emotionally challenging 
process. “The focus quickly 
switched to the children,
” Kahn 
continues. “What could they 
eat? Would western candy con-
tain too much sugar? Would 
their diaper sizes be smaller 
than those of U.S. babies?”
The decision was made: the 
flight attendants purchased 
diapers, wipes, coloring books, 
gummy bears and balloons. 
While the three pilots offered 
to pay for the items, the flight 

attendants insisted upon their 
contribution. “
All of this was 
very inspirational to me,
” Kahn 
says.
During the next morning 
in the hours before the flight, 
Kahn met a friend, and the two 
visited the Base Exchange store 
to purchase additional supplies. 
He spoke with several mothers, 
who advised on what to get. 
“They instantly asked how they 
could help, once again illustrat-
ing that generosity is alive and 
well in our military families and 
American society,
” Kahn says.

ELEMENT OF NOSTALGIA
While the flight from Germany, 
itself, was uneventful, it held 
priceless meaning to Kahn, 
the Delta crew and the Afghan 
refugees who were transported 
to Texas, to begin the process 
of resettlement. For Kahn, who 
began his flight training and 
earned his private pilot’s license 
at Ramstein Air Base, there was 
an element of nostalgia to the 
mission.
“Because this is a military 
base overseas, I never expected 
to be able to fly there again,
” he 
says. Knowing that Ramstein 

Rescue 
Flight

18 | SEPTEMBER 16 • 2021 

Southfield pilot, son of Holocaust 
survivor, flies plane full of Afghan 
refugees to U.S.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Captain Alexander Kahn

