THE distraught family of an Afghan teen stowaway who plunged to his death from a US military jet has revealed the horrifying moment they found his body.
Shocking video captured the tragic moment 'Reza', 17, tumbled through the air as the plane rapidly gained altitude over Kabul.
Seven died, with the mangled body of Reza later recovered on the ground, family members told Vice.
“His legs and arms were gone. I brought him back myself,” said one relative.
Witnesses who saw people plummeting from the C-17 transport plane on Monday located their remains, and removed them from Kabul’s main airport.
Reza's relative explained that they realised something was amiss when they called the boy's mobile, but it was answered by a stranger.
So the teen's worried family rushed to the airport to try to find him and his missing brother, 'Kabeer', 16.
The siblings were so desperate to escape the Taliban that they had both gone to the airport in a bid to flee to a safe haven overseas.
Although Reza's mangled remains have been found, Kabeer's fate is still unknown.
The family member said: "We are really upset that we’ve lost two, we’ve found the body of one of them, but the other one is still missing."
Vice World News explains that it has changed the names of both boys as they are minors, and to protect their terrified families.
The relative explained how they'd gone from hospital to hospital in a desperate search to track down missing Kabeer "to find him dead or alive so it will console our family".
Describing themselves as "worried", they added that "we didn’t get any information".
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The teens' mum is "devastated" and repeatedly "passing out" from the stress and horrific death of at least one son.
The boys had fled to the airport, taking their ID details with them, after hearing rumours that 20,000 refugees would be relocated to Canada or the US, the relative added.
They said that the boys were among scores of Afghans "trying to run away" because of "fear of the Taliban – they are killing people".
FEARS OVER TALIBAN EXTREMISTS
It follows several deeply distressing videos showing stowaways falling to their deaths soon after the plane was airborne.
In a bid to flee what they fear will be a return to the Taliban's brutal rule based on an extreme interpretation of Islam, people raced to the airport in a frantic bid to board flights on Monday.
In chaotic scenes echoing the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war, petrified men, women and children were filmed trying to get on aircraft after the feared Taliban stormed the capital.
With civilian flights suspended, many turned US Air Force aircraft to try get out of the country while they were operating.
Harrowing video shows stowaways falling several hundred feet to their deaths after being thrown from a C-17 transport aircraft taking off from Kabul airport.
Other images taken from the ground show stowaways clinging to the plane as it took off.
At one stage, US Apache helicopter gunships were brought in to clear a path for the transport planes, swooping low to disperse people massed on the runway and firing warning shots.
One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle at the airport.
To find 'Kabeer dead or alive will console our family.
American troops guarding the airport were forced to fire shots into the air but it's unclear if those who died were hit by bullets or crushed in the stampede.
Dozens were later reportedly treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital in Kabul.
It was reported that the military crew later found one body wedged in the landing gear.
It appears the man became trapped in a panel that is part of the landing gear mechanism and which closes when the wheels are retracted.
The discovery was made when the crew struggled to close the landing gear and then made an emergency landing in a third country, the Washington Post reported.
In another video, a group of men can be seen riding on top of the wheel bay as the plane taxis along the runway.
Across Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross said thousands had been wounded in recent fighting.
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