KABUL, March 24: A mystery pilot flew an Afghan Mig-21 jet into Kabul airport on Saturday, stepped from the cockpit and walked away without explanation, leaving the warplane on the tarmac and troops stationed there baffled, the International Security Force (ISAF) said on Sunday.

“An Afghan MiG-21 arrived unexpectedly (Saturday) afternoon in Kabul international airport,” ISAF press officer Can Oz told a briefing here.

The aircraft was in poor condition and its communications equipment was failing when the pilot radioed the airport requesting permission to land, which was granted by ISAF troops based at the airport.

The pilot, wearing a “helmet-like cap,” spoke briefly to Afghan airport officials before walking away without revealing why he had brought the craft back to Afghanistan.

ISAF officials are at a loss as to who the pilot is or where he is now, and are mystified as to when the warplane had been taken out of Afghanistan and why it has returned.

“We have discussed it among ourselves. Maybe it’s a display, maybe it is a show or demonstration of something symbolic, I do not know,” said another ISAF, spokesman Tony Marshall.

The Russian-made MiG was believed to have flown in from one of the Central Asian republics, Marshall said. “Best bet from Tajikistan, I think,” he added.

Former occupying Soviet forces left behind more than a dozen MiG jets when they abandoned Afghanistan in 1989 after a protracted ten-year war with mujahideen fighters.

During the ensuing civil war, rival Afghan factions used the jets to attack each other. Most of the jets were destroyed in the fighting.

The Taliban seized the remaining half-dozen when they took power in Kabul in 1996.

It was believed that all of those aircraft were destroyed in the US bombing campaign against the Taliban.

One theory raised by journalists at the briefing is that the jet was a gift to interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, who has complained about his temporary administration’s lack of resources to maintain security.

A week ago ISAF forces based at Kabul airport turned away an Iranian C-130 transport aircraft because it lacked a permit to land, known as “a slot”. —AFP