Never worked with helicopters whilst in the RAF so don’t know too much about them regarding range. Where will the ones flying in Kabul fly to, will they have to destroy some before they leave the airport?

They’ll take them home. Even the CH-47 easily fits into a C-17.

ORAC
 

What strikes me the most about the first video you posted is how the people trying to board that aircraft seem to be almost exclusively young and healthy males.

You may infer what you wish from what I have said.

BV

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...go-jet-reports

800 People Evacuated From Kabul Aboard A Single C-17 Cargo Jet: Reports

….A tanker bridge has also been created that is refueling heavily laden USAF transport flights as they move from Afghanistan to safer locales in the Middle East. The tankers could allow for the loaded transports to make tactical departures from Kabul with lower fuel loads than they would have to without aerial refueling support. There could be a major shortage of jet fuel at Kabul International, as well….

Twitter

Twitter

Will the Taliban decide to extend there empire.

Info for those on the ground from Politico:

Embassies have now set up makeshift offices to coordinate the evacuation at the Kabul airport. There are reports the British and German Embassy staff are staying behind to process visas for their Afghan employees. And to speed things up and cut through red tape, Berlin has also agreed to process visa requests on German ground after the evacuation, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

The U.S. acting ambassador has left Kabul, and the embassy is likely to be shuttered by Tuesday, two U.S. officials told our Stateside colleagues They report certain staffers will continue their work from the airport, protected by roughly 6,000 U.S. troops. Overnight, the U.S. Embassy issued a security alert warning of the “airport taking fire” and told U.S. citizens to shelter in place.

It is unclear how long the U.S. will be able or willing to hold the airport — with Germany’s Spiegel reporting that Washington has warned counterparts it was planning to wrap up the operation within 72 hours….

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv was also helping with evacuations. “Ukrainian aircraft stationed in Afghanistan took citizens of Ukraine, the Netherlands, Croatia, Belarus, Afghanistan out of Kabul,” he tweeted. “We don’t abandon our people & help others.” The U.S. is also helping to evacuate Europeans, German media reports….

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Paris has stepped up rescue efforts and is launching its first evacuations to the United Arab Emirates, also promising “full mobilization to allow the safe and rapid evacuation of all our nationals and individuals from Afghan civil society threatened because of their engagements.”

Spain announced it would send two airplanes Monday to Dubai for the first phase of evacuating embassy staff, local Afghan workers who helped Madrid and their families, as well as EU personnel.

“We will support the EU and its foreign service for an orderly departure of European and local personnel. We will not leave anyone behind,” said Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.….

Meanwhile, Albania and Kosovo both said Sunday they had accepted a request from Washington to temporarily bring in Afghan refugees seeking visas to enter the United States, according to Reuters.

Theres also the option of ferrying them out to via the North and AT from K2 or elsewhere.

Yet another example of the Western world not understanding (or not wanting to understand, as it may get in the way of quick profits) a "country" that is tribal and probably doesn't have an over-riding national identity unless one has been forced on it (along with some arbitrary borders), either by its own rulers or by invaders (as with most of Asia, the Middle East, former Yugoslavia, etc etc).

Then let’s hope it doesn’t come down to people or equipment.

Dreadful reports on Twitter just now.
Video of people clinging to sponsoon of C-17 as it took off... reports several fell to their deaths.

People or Chinooks, I know which I would airlift out, the other would be left burning on the runway.

To see juniors hidden twitter feed of the mayhem, click quote then copy the link.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...its-people-out

More video online of people perched on the right hand sponsoon of a C-17 taxying at high speed...

With Apaches trying to clear a path for the taxying C17's Tartare

Watch this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-58219963

Re the question of how the helicopters will be recovered: won't they just fly across to Pakistan and be recovered from there? With diplomatic clearance, of course; the Pakistanis wouldn't dare to refuse it. It's only 110 miles from Kabul to the border, and then another 20 miles to Peshawar or 90 to Islamabad. Besides, a few hundred troops will be needed to keep the runway clear of civilians for the final fixed-wing departure and they will presumably depart by helicopter with Apache escort. I should imagine that care is being taken to ensure that enough fuel remains (or is flown in) to get them all out.

Aircrew on the ground in Kabul are going to be having to make some horrific decisions, and then be witnessing the outworkings at first hand. I cannot begin to imagine the distress there as we watch from thousands of miles away. We can argue the politics forever and a day, but surely there is no doubt that a sustained presence would have prevented this meltdown. And what we are witnessing now will have ramifications for a generation.
I really feel for our troops on the ground, and the innocent Afghanis that are going to pay for this with their lives in the coming days.

I'm afraid there is very much doubt over that. A sustained Western presence would have caused suffering in other ways. From the most recent SIGAR report:

I've said it earlier in the thread, there was no 'stay' option. The Taliban was progressively taking control of the country, its tax revenues and the home villages of ANDSF members. In short they were winning. The level of civilian casualties was not 'low cost'. The level of ANDSF casualties was not 'low cost', so much so that the numbers have been classified for a couple of years now. The choices were to escalate in order to pause (never mind reverse) the Taliban's progress, or to get out. Both options end with the scenes we see today; the first option merely kicks it down the road and kills more people by prolonging the fighting.

The only* realistic way of avoiding today's scenes was a negotiated peaceful transition to a power-sharing arrangement with the Taliban. The time for that was some years ago, when the Kabul government still held a fig leaf of credibility and the West had tens of thousands of troops in place with no pre-announced timetable for withdrawal. A paradox of negotiation is that you should compromise when at your strongest. Unfortunately Ghani refused to consider it.

* In a limited sense, there is perhaps one other way, which is that US government departments could have paid earlier heed to the intent of their elected Presidents and drawn down their personnel numbers sooner so that the scale of the final airlift could have been smaller.

Edit: same arguments made here.

There's a Spooky en-route to Kabul as we speak...