Afghan pilots killed in Polk County crash were US allies
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- The 3 men who died in a Polk County plane crash Saturday evening were former Afghan Air Force pilots, US allies during the War on Terror.
Mohammad Hussain Musawi, the 35-year-old pilot, plus passengers Mohammad Bashir Safdari, 35, and Ali Jan Ferdawsi, 29, all died at the scene of the crash near Hoffman Road in Independence shortly before 5 p.m. The plane was traveling in heavy fog to the Independence State Airport from McMinnville when the plane crashed, downing power lines, causing a power outage and a small brush fire.
Russ Pritchard, the CEO of the Afghan American Development Group, leads a team working with hundreds of former pilots of the Afghan Air Force. Pritchard said these pilots helped the US during the chaos of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
"They took every available aircraft, and they flew to the neighboring countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. And the purpose of that was to make sure those weapons never fell into the hands of the Taliban and could never be used against a civilian population. It was a very heroic thing to do," Pritchard said. "It meant leaving their families, their wives, their children, their loved ones behind in Afghanistan."
The pilots who perished had resettled in Oregon in 2022. At first they've only been able to find minimum wage jobs but were in the process of training to attain jobs in aviation in America, he said.
According to Pritchard, all three applied for and received asylum and were in the process of becoming legal permanent residents in the United States. They were awaiting the arrival of their wives and children whom they had not seen since August 2021.
Pritchard said there are hundreds more Afghan pilots in the same situation. His organization supports approximately 600 former personnel of the Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing who came to the United States as part of Operation Allies Welcome in 2021-2022, after the collapse of Afghanistan.
The Afghan American Development Group supports with resettlement assistance, job training, and family reunification.
"We want these heroes -- who are our loyal allies for decades -- to be reunited with their wives and children," he said.
The Afghan American Development Group is working to develop a national program to get these former Afghan Air Force pilots back up in the air and their families back by their side. Currently, there are approximately 40 other former AAF pilots in Oregon.
Major Safdari and Major Musawi graduated from the National Military Academy of Afghanistan, and Lieutenant Ferdawsi graduated from the Afghan Air Force Academy. All three officers were married with children, Pritchard said.
GoFundMe: 3 Afghan pilots killed in Oregon crash
The crash investigation is now being led by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. A cause has not yet been determined.