Kandagar

Background

On August 3, 1995 a Taliban fighter plane forced down a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 plane with seven Russian nationals on board in what would be called The Aerostan incident. The aircraft was forced to land at a Taliban controlled airfield near Kandahar. The men were held prisoners for more than one year by the Taliban which controlled about half of Afghanistan at the time during the Civil war in Afghanistan (1992–1996). The movie follows their captivity, day-to-day survival, and escape from Taliban.

Unexpected negligence from Russian diplomats caused the prisoners to take steps toward their freedom themselves. The captain was forced to teach Taliban soldiers to fly the plane, and the rest of the hostages were allowed to visit their aircraft for maintenance.

At some point the Russian crew worked out the escape plan, and during one of the maintenance visits for landing gear work, they were able to gain control over the plane. Despite interception efforts by Taliban base guards, which caused the aircraft to start the takeoff having only half of the runway, they were able to take off. Despite several technical difficulties immediately after takeoff, they finally gained a safe cruising altitude and speed.