KSAR: Plans

From the Kabul Small Animal Rescue’s Facebook:

I've avoided making our departure date public because I don't want to jinx anything, given that we are operating in a fluid environment and trying to mitigate potential hiccups that could come from a worldwide pandemic, a burgeoning conflict involving a few superpowers, and for all I know an alien invasion of giant jellyfish,  but because of the misunderstandings and anxious questions we're seeing, I'll give some clarity and cross my fingers while Abby here 'helps' with the packing.

Our flight departs Kabul on Sunday, January 30th, early afternoon and lands in Vancouver about 48 hours later to be received by the SPCA International-led group of rescues. The plane is a total beast, an Ilyushan 76-TD, basically built for flying into Siberia in the middle of winter, so we do not expect winter weather to cause any delays or disruptions. There are two crews and three loadmasters to help manage the safe loading of our animals. It's non-palletized loading, which means the crates are packed directly into the plane and strapped in, not first put onto pallets and netted down. This allows for way more efficient packing, and the load plans we've been shown are incredible, with stacks of crates back to back in rows that allow the fronts of crates to be viewed so we can constantly check on the animals and safely and easily move them to clean crates, provide fresh food and water, and address any health problems. We have two animal handlers flying with them out of Kabul and accompanying them the whole way: KSAR staff member Derick Stone and Jeff Beri, a volunteer on loan from No Dogs Left Behind . At each refueling stop there will be crew rest, and veterinary teams will come do full checks on each animal, crates will be cleaned, food and water refreshed, and lots of cuddles given. We will be traveling with about a metric ton of supplies, and hundreds of people have put their concerted efforts into planning for every contingency. We are not depending on luck for this one, but have instead embraced the 7 Ps: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

We have about 36 hours til takeoff here and will be busy with the well choreographed movements and prep of the final day, but we have gotten permission from the airport to film the take-off, and I will find someone more technologically capable than myself to set up a link where you can track the plane.

^ Fingers crossed all goes well. ^