Jon Boone
Guardian
December 30, 2011
With its clutter of civilian jets, cargo planes and military flights, Kabul International has one the busiest airspaces in the world. And dangerous: even before take-off pilots are almost a mile above sea level and surrounded by treacherous peaks.
On more than one occasion errant unmanned surveillance drones have caused panic after drifting unannounced into the vicinity of the airport.
For all these reasons, Kabul is not an obvious place for the maiden flight of an aircraft made from bits of rickshaw and a secondhand Toyota Yaris in the garden of a 25-year-old hobbyist. But that was what the enterprising Sabir Shah was set on doing when US air force pilots discovered the bright blue aircraft being assembled next to Kabul’s only runway.
Their horror grew when they were told the young enthusiast had never piloted an aircraft or had pilot training. His first flight had been the day before when he caught a lift in an Afghan military helicopter to the capital from his home town of Ghazni in the country’s restless southeast.
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