Men who died in Oregon small plane crash were Afghan Air Force pilots who resettled as refugees

By CLAIRE RUSH
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The three men who died in a small plane crash in Oregon over the weekend were Afghan Air Force pilots who had resettled in the U.S. as refugees after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021. Local nonprofit Salem for Refugees said it had helped resettle Mohammad Hussain Musawi, Mohammad Bashir Safdari and Ali Jan Ferdawsi in the state capital Salem in the spring of 2022. Another nonprofit, the Afghan American Development Group, said the men served with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Both groups have created GoFundMe pages to support the pilots’ families, who remained in Afghanistan while waiting to be able to come to the U.S.