A Royal Air Force Sergeant who cradled an Afghan baby while her mother was too weak to hold her has been praised for his touching gesture.
Andy Livingstone, 31, said he offered to hold the two-week-old girl in his arms and fitted a pair of ear mufflers on her after he saw the woman twice accidentally drop her child due to exhaustion.
The baby and her family were among thousands of Afghans who descended on Kabul airport after the Taliban seized the capital in August as part of their lightning offensive.
As an air loadmaster on the A400M aircraft, Sgt Livingstone was tasked with strapping Afghans into their seats on the flight and assisting with any urgent needs.
The woman was with her husband, baby and her three older children when the RAF man first encountered her.
He said it was clear the entire family were exhausted from their ordeal and the eldest daughter was in shock.
Speaking this week about the incident on August 26, he told Sky News: "Already I had my eye on that family, making sure they're going to be looked after for the next few hours.
"Then out the corner of my eye I see something drop on the floor and as I look over, bless her, this woman is picking up her two-week-old child.
"I go over and try and strap the baby closer, using seat belts, anything I can just to make it easier for mum and baby – and within a couple of minutes, it happened again.
"At that point, it was just the only thing I could think of to do was just plead with the family to let me take the baby for half an hour or however long they'd let me, just so she could have enough sleep to gain a little bit more energy to hold her baby."
A photo of Sgt Livingstone holding the little girl prompted an outpouring of praise on social media with some people calling for him to be given an award.
Social media users lauded him, with one asking “can we recommend him for some sort of commendation” as he represents “Britain and the RAF at its best”.
The Ministry of Defence has been contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, a British soldier who was among the service members flying Afghans from Kabul airport has spoken about what it was like hearing “constant gunshots” as they carried out their mission.
Pvt Jake Howarth, of 2nd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, described the harrowing scenes awaiting troops when they touched down in Hamid Karzai International Airport in mid-August.
“It looked like it wasn’t organised at all. When we were walking through all you could hear was constant gunshots at that time," he said.
“If you looked at people’s faces, we were all quite shocked. We did not know what was happening. We did not know if it was Taliban or if it was coalition forces firing their rounds off.”
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
if you go
The flights
Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.
The hotel
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Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850
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Events and tours
There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com
For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art.
More information
For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan v Juventus
Saturday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Watch the match on BeIN Sports
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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