2 Afghan trainees go missing
NEW YORK: Two men from Afghanistan who were in the United States for training at Moody Air Force Base are missing, days before they were scheduled to graduate and return to their country, the base and officials said on Wednesday.
The base said the two men, part of a training programme in conjunction with the Afghan Air Force, did not report on Monday for their maintenance duties with the 81st Fighter Squadron. The two arrived in the United States more than a year ago and have been at the air base, in Valdosta, Georgia, since February, the base said. No identifying information was released.
The base said the men were screened before their arrival and had been training alongside US counterparts. The missing men “do not pose any apparent threat”, the base said.
An Air Force spokesman, Lt Col Christopher P Karns, said the last contact with the two students was last Friday. They are allowed to leave the base at weekends and it was assumed they did, he said.
After the men failed to report for duty on Monday and they were not found in their living quarters on the base, the search widened to include federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to ensure their “safe return”, Lt Col Karns said. He added there were no reports of missing weapons, “or anything of that nature”.
“In light of everything going on in the world today, we want to make sure no one jumps to any unfair or misinformed conclusions,” he said.
Security concerns in the United States have risen sharply after last week’s shootings in San Bernardino, California, in which the couple who carried out the attack were motivated by extremist views. Also as Muslim citizens are reporting a backlash.
Brian K Childress, the police chief in Valdosta, said that up to a dozen business owners and citizens had called or emailed the department after learning that the Afghan men were at large.
“A lot of folks have contacted me or my staff at the police department very concerned about these two Afghans, in light of what happened out in California,” he said in a telephone interview.
Mr Childress said an all-points bulletin had been issued. The base is just north of Valdosta, which has a population of about 58,000.
“I have been at other bases where this has happened before, where you have had foreign nationals who come and train and they decide they want to stay here,” Mr Childress said.
The missing men were in a class of nine Afghan pilots and 12 Afghan aircraft maintenance students who train in classrooms or on the flight line, Lt Col Karns said. They were scheduled to graduate next Friday and return to Afghanistan. The class had about a year of English language training at the Defence Language Institute in San Antonio, Texas, before arriving at Moody, he said.
The programme to train Afghan pilots and aircraft maintenance personnel started this year at the base, according to a local WALB News report in January.
About 30 Afghan pilots and 90 aircraft maintenance workers are scheduled to come to the base over the next four to six years to learn to fly and maintain A-29 Super Tucano planes.
After their training, they are expected to return to Afghanistan in 2018 with 20 of the aircraft for the Afghan air force to use in counterinsurgency operations, a statement from the air base said in January.
The reason behind the disappearance of the two men is not yet known.