Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay
| CFB Goose Bay Goose Bay Airport |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | CYYR |
| IATA code | YYR |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 49 m (161 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 3 miles northwest of Happy Valley-Goose Bay |
| Street | TLH (NL 500) / NL 520 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1941 |
| operator |
NATO Canadian Air Force Goose Bay Airport Corp. |
| Flight movements |
31,674 (2016) |
| Runways | |
| 08/26 | 3367 m × 64 m asphalt |
| 16/34 | 2920 m × 61 m asphalt |
The Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay (German " Goose Bay Base of the Canadian Forces ", also CFB Goose Bay for short ) is a Canadian military airfield in northeast Canada , near the village of Happy Valley-Goose Bay , in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador . The base is also known as 5 Wing Goose Bay , the civilian part as Goose Bay Airport .
At CFB Goose Bay there is the possibility of flight training for military pilots for low-level flights .
history
Construction of the CFB Goose Bay
The history of the Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay began in the Second World War with the Destroyers for Bases Agreement of 1940. The US left 50 destroyers to Great Britain and in return was allowed to set up bases on British territory.
So in the summer the Royal Canadian Air Force began looking for a suitable area for a base on the plateau where the Churchill River flows into Lake Melville . The name of the base is derived from this lake, the western part is called Goose Bay . Ultimately, the site was chosen because it on the great circle was -Route from America to Europe, all year had very good meteorological conditions and the ice-free period from early summer to autumn on the Lake Melville and Hamilton Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean is connected and is conveniently located for supplying the base by cargo ships.
The three runways, each 2.5 km long at the time, were opened on November 16, 1941, and the first military aircraft landed there on December 9. At this point in time, a good 3,000 Canadian Air Force soldiers were stationed on the base, and in 1942 the then US Army Air Force began building its own facilities in the south of the base, for which around 1,700 USAAF soldiers and 700 civilians were relocated to the region .
Second World War
From October 1942 until the end of World War II, the base served primarily as a stopover for a total of 24,000 American and Canadian fighter planes on their way to Europe. In addition, anti-submarine planes were stationed there, which were supposed to provide cover for convoys from the air. Goose Bay had become the busiest airport in the world in 1943.
Cold War
Time of US Air Force presence
After the Second World War, Canadian units were stationed at CFB Goose Bay in the northern part and US Air Force units in the southern part (known as Goose Bay Air Force Base ) . In the 1950s, the Air Force relocated bombers to the airfield in the wake of the emerging Cold War , including those with nuclear weapons. In addition, interceptors were also relocated to the base, as it was one of the closest North American bases (seen from the flight time) on the way to the Soviet Union . Because of this strategic location, a 20-year lease was signed between Canada and the USAF in 1953.
On November 10, 1950, there was an incident involving a bomber stationed on the base. On the flight from Goose Bay to Tucson , Arizona joined a Boeing B-50 Superfortress an engine problem bombers. According to the regulations in force, the pilot had to drop all weapons in order to reduce the weight of the aircraft. During this maneuver, the bombs had to be detonated in the air so as not to cause damage to the ground. So the pilot dropped three non-live atomic bombs and detonated them. “Not sharp” means that the plutonium cores were not on board. The shaped charges exploded at 2500 feet (approx. 800 m) above the St. Lawrence River near the city of St. Andre-de-Kamouraska , but without causing any damage. The Canadian government only revealed this in 2000.
In November 1954, an air defense radar was installed near the base . This USAF Melville Radar Station was part of the so-called Pinetree Line , the first organized radar chain to warn of Soviet bomber attacks.
From 1957, at that time 3,300 American soldiers and 700 civilians were working there, the American Strategic Air Command began to use the base. First, Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers and Boeing KC-97 Stratotankers were stationed there with the 4082nd Strategic Wing . The tanker was replaced from 1960 by more modern Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers, a few years later Boeing B-52 Stratofortress long-range bombers were also stationed at Goose Bay AFB. The base's crew had grown to over 12,000, aided by the closure of Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville (Newfoundland) . From 1966 onwards, the Air Force's manpower decreased there, because with the deactivation of the 4082nd Strategic Wing and the activation of the 95th Strategic Wing, large parts of the stationed interceptors were relocated to other bases.
With the reduction of American activities in the early 1960s, the Royal Air Force began a first training program for deep and deep flights with Vulcan bombers over Labrador in Goose Bay . These flights ended in the summer of 1984 with the decommissioning of the Vulcans. Today a machine stands as a memorial near the terminal.
The northern part of the base, which was reserved for the Canadian Air Force, was sparsely used at the time. This northern part was completely closed from 1971, the Canadians and British now operated from the southern part together with the US Air Force. The Americans also handed over the Melville Radar Station to Canada, which they renamed the Canadian Forces Station Goose Bay .
In 1973 the US Air Force lease contract ended, but was initially extended by six months to July 1. On that day, all facilities were handed over to the government of Canada, but the USAF was allowed to use the facilities for three more years. America's permanent presence on CFB Goose Bay was ended on July 1, 1976, but Military Airlift Command personnel remained stationed there to handle stopovers for American Lockheed C-5 , Lockheed C-141 and Lockheed C- cargo aircraft. 130 to regulate.
After the US Air Force withdrew
After the US Air Force withdrew, the entire base was renamed Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay. According to estimates by the Government of Canada, the American installations that were now passed into the possession of Canada, had a value of 250 million US dollars .
However, the importance of the station as a base for air forces decreased more and more, it was only used as a support base for the radar station. The decision of the Canadian Air Force to station the new CF-18 interceptors on the CFB Bagotville further reduced the base's chances of long-term survival.
Goose Bay as a NATO base
This only changed when through the improvement of Soviet ground-to-air missiles , the doctrine of NATO changed. From the end of the 1970s, low-level flights were introduced as an element of warfare against the Warsaw Pact . When bases were sought for the pilot training, CFB Goose Bay was an ideal candidate, as there was a very low population density around the base and the terrain was partly similar to that of the Soviet Union. The base became one of the main focal points of low-level flight training for many NATO countries, which were particularly dependent on the base, as laws in many European countries severely restrict low-level flights (in some areas around CFB Goose Bay a minimum altitude of only 100 feet (approx. 30 meters)) and the surrounding areas with 130,000 km² are partly larger than small NATO countries (the Netherlands , for example, is only approx. 42,000 km²).
During the 1980s and 1990s, the Goose Bay CFB was home to units of the Royal Air Force , German Air Force , Royal Netherlands Air Force and Aeronautica Militare . Other NATO countries had temporary secondments.
During the Second Gulf War , the base was an important stopover base for heavy transport aircraft of the US Air Force, which made refueling stops there.
The end of the phase as the main training base for low-level flights for NATO countries began in the late 1990s when the Dutch withdrew from Goose Bay, leaving behind only a temporary secondment. As of March 31, 2005, the RAF also ended its secondment; there were contracts for the Italians and Germans that lasted until spring 2006, but were not extended. On March 31, 2006, the “last keys” were handed over to the Canadians by the local German administration.
Since then, Canadians want the infrastructure that u. a. built and maintained by the German Air Force over the past twenty-five years, rented out to interested NATO partners on a temporary basis and provided the logistics necessary for flight operations.
The German Air Force flew the Panavia Tornado PA-200 , the McDonnell Douglas F-4 , the Alpha Jet and the C-160 Transall in Goose Bay since the late 1980s . At that time, a maximum of 4,000 air force soldiers were temporarily stationed there in contingents from the second MOU to 5,500. In the 1980s, fewer than 40 permanent members of the Bundeswehr (some with their families) were stationed there, who provided supplies to support the commanded flying commands and were available as permanent contacts.
Criticism of the low-level flights came mainly from the indigenous people of the region, the Innu , who asserted the negative effects of the flights on the wild life of the region. After massive, sometimes violent protests, the low-level flight zones were relocated and the minimum flight altitudes increased.
Due to the changed threat situation to NATO, the low-level training of the NATO countries decreased more and more after the turn of the millennium. Today, aircraft for low-level training in Goose Bay are relatively rare and occasional. Many of the large hangars and living rooms on the airbase are therefore empty today.
Due to the use of the area for military training purposes, large parts of the forest around Goose Bay are contaminated with ammunition. Signs warn against entering. The Canadian government is currently considering extensively renovating the site, which, however, is associated with considerable financial outlay and would also take some time.
Goose Bay as part of the National Missile Defense
Some Senators in the Canadian Senate brought up the CFB Goose Bay as part of the American Missile Defense System (NMD). A radar station is to be re-established there (the Melville Radar Station was closed in 1988). The base was then examined for suitability by the main contractor for NMD, Raytheon , results were not published.
Space shuttle
The CFB Goose Bay was selected by NASA as an emergency landing base for the space shuttle . This happened because of the favorable position in the approach path of the shuttle (since 1991 to the Kennedy Space Center ) and because of the long runways there.
In 1983 the Shuttle Enterprise landed on the back of a Boeing 747 at CFB Goose Bay. This stopover, which was used to refuel the carrier aircraft, was the first space shuttle landing outside of the United States. The Enterprise was on its way to Europe, where it was shown in France, Germany and England, among others.
Goose Bay Airport
The civil part of the airfield is mainly used for domestic flights, among others Air Canada Express , Provincial Airlines and Air Labrador fly from there. Around 85,000 passengers are handled every year.
After the US airspace was closed after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in the US , seven transatlantic flights landed at Goose Bay Airport. These were the first aircraft to land in Canada after the diversion.
Goose Bay Airport is also often used as a refueling stop on small aircraft transfers.
On September 30, 2017, the airport served as an emergency stop for an Airbus A380 of Air France . During the flight from Paris to Los Angeles, several parts of one of the four engines from the manufacturer Engine Alliance came loose . None of the 497 passengers were harmed.
Web links
- 5 Wing Homepage (English)
- Goose Bay Airport Homepage (English)
- History of the base on strategic-air-command.com (English)
- Private report of a tour
Individual evidence
- ↑ Table 401-0021 Monthly aircraft movements, by class of operation and type of operation, airports without air traffic control towers. StatCan.gc.ca , accessed September 1, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c NATO Tactical Fighter Weapons Training Center: Goose Bay Canada, Site Survey, October 1985
- ↑ Richard Cléroux: Ottawa hid truth about A-bomb . ( Memento of September 14, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) cnews, February 22, 2000.
