Campbeltown Airport

Campbeltown Airport / Port-Adhair Cheann Loch Chille Chiarain
Characteristics
ICAO code	EGEC
IATA code	CAL
Coordinates	55 ° 26 '14 "  N , 5 ° 41' 11"  W Coordinates: 55 ° 26 '14 "  N , 5 ° 41' 11"  W.
Height above MSL	13 m (43  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	4 miles west of Campbeltown
Street	4 km to the
Basic data
operator	Highlands and Islands Airports Limited
Terminals	1
Passengers	8,573 (2016)
Air freight	0 (2016)
Flight movements	1,452 (2016)
Start-and runway
11/29	1750 m × 46 m asphalt

The Campbeltown Airport ( IATA code : CAL , ICAO code : EGEC , Scottish Gaelic and port adhair Cheann hole Chille Chiarain called) is a commercial airport on the Scottish peninsula of Kintyre on the west coast of Scotland. The airport is located near the town of Campbeltown , it was built on the site of the former military airfield RAF Machrihanish station shortly RAF Machrihanish .

history

The airport was originally the summer of 1918 in the final stages of the First World War as an alternative space for the Royal Navy - airship port opened Luce Bay. The 272nd Squadron of the Royal Air Force , which was reorganized in 1918, used the space until the end of 1918, when the facility was closed again.

At the beginning of the Second World War , the field was reactivated, the first user was the 772nd Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm , an anti-submarine squadron including the associated training facility. Further naval school squadrons such as the 776th and 768th Squadron were later located here for a longer period of time, and a large number of different squadrons were added for shorter periods of time.

During the Cold War , RAF Machrihanish became an important NATO airfield for patrol and reconnaissance flights over the North Atlantic . The station was also used as a stopover for transatlantic aircraft relocations. At the beginning of the 1960s, a 3 km long main runway was built, which later could have served as an emergency landing site for the American space shuttles . In the final stages of the Cold War and the years thereafter (until 1995) a seal team of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command was based here. In 1997 the station was given reserve status as a facility of the Ministry of Defense and from then on it could also be used for civilian purposes. It was finally sold in 2012.

Today only part of the 3049 m long runway built in the early 1960s is officially in use.

Airlines and Destinations

Loganair connects Campbeltown Airport with Glasgow Airport twice a day .

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter services at Campbeltown Airport:

Airline	Destination
Loganair	Glasgow

Incidents

• On March 15, 2005, a Britten-Norman BN-2B-26 Islander of the British Loganair ( aircraft registration G-BOMG ) was flown below the prescribed minimum altitude on the approach to Campbeltown Airport in bad weather . The machine broke on impact and sank into the sea 14 kilometers west-northwest of the destination airfield. Both occupants, the pilot and the passenger, were killed. Contributing factors to this CFIT ( Controlled flight into terrain ) were fatigue, lack of flying practice during the previous 32 days and overloading of the only pilot on board.

Web links

• About Campbeltown Airport from Highlands and Islands Airports Limited

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Passenger numbers at all airports in the United Kingdom. (PDF; 79 kB) In: caa.co.uk. Civil Aviation Authority , accessed May 13, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Freight figures from all UK airports. (PDF; 12 kB) In: caa.co.uk. Civil Aviation Authority , accessed May 13, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Aircraft movements at all UK airports. (PDF; 157 kB) In: caa.co.uk. Civil Aviation Authority , accessed May 13, 2017 . 
4. ↑ http://www.hial.co.uk/campbeltown-airport/destinations/
5. ^ Accident report BN-2 Islander G-BOMG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 9, 2020.