Gjadër military airfield

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Gjadr military airfield
Shenyang F-6 in a cavern at Gjadër airfield
Characteristics
ICAO code LAGJ
Coordinates

41 ° 53 '43 "  N , 19 ° 35' 55"  E Coordinates: 41 ° 53 '43 "  N , 19 ° 35' 55"  E
Height above MSL 6 m (20  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 10 km south of Lezha
Basic data
opening 1974
operator Albanian Air Force
Runways
16/34 2840 m × 60 m concrete
17/35 2200 m × 25 m concrete



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The military airfield Gjadër ( Albanian  Aerodromi ushtarak i Gjadrit , also Baza ajrore e Gjadrit ), also military airfield Lezha-Zadrima is a former military airfield of the Albanian Air Force in the Zadrima north of Lezha in northern Albania .

Location and facilities

The airfield in the Zadrima plain, the Albanian Alps in the background

The airfield is located in northern Albania in the flat Zadrima plain between the cities of Lezha and Shkodra . The village of Gjadër is right next to the airfield. This is traversed by the old Drin river and its tributary Gjadër . Village  roads and the national road SH29 cross the side piste.

The narrow secondary slope runs around 400 to 600 meters west of the main slope. It also serves as a taxiway to the north end of the main runway . Another taxiway connects the slopes at their southern ends. A third runs parallel to the main runway to the west.

About 1.4 kilometers southwest of the main runway and 400 meters south of the secondary runway is an underground aircraft cavern in the range of hills of Mali i Kakarriqit ( 398  m above sea level ), which borders the plain to the west. The 14 meter wide and semicircular bunker  had two entrances. It offered space for up to 50 jet jets .

The military base was also near the cavern. Shortly after the cavern, the taxiway crosses the Drin.

The most important north-south axis SH1 runs around one kilometer east of the main runway .

history

Early years

The Albanian Air Force , founded in 1951, was initially only stationed in Lapraka near Tirana. In 1955 the Kuçova military airfield  in southern central Albania was put into operation. The new Tirana Airport , which opened near Rinas in 1958 , was used for both military and civil purposes.

Aviation cavern

In order to better protect the northern Albanian airspace against intruders - in particular injuries by the Yugoslav air force  - the construction of a military airfield in Gjadër began in 1969. Support came from the People's Republic of China . With the Shenyang F-6 , the most modern aircraft of the Albanian Air Force were used in Gjadër. A newly established air regiment was  stationed in Gjadër . In the following years, other aircraft - Shenyang FT-5 , Chengdu F-7A and more F-6 - were moved from Tirana and Kuçova to Gjadër.

Years of transformation

The Luftwaffe used the base at least until 1993. In 1992 there was an incident with an FT-5 that had a problem with the chassis. The pilots were able to land the aircraft on their stomach in the grass next to the runway.

At the beginning of 1994, the Americans settled  on the Gjadër military airfield. The CIA deployed two Gnat 750 unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and a satellite communications ground station to conduct reconnaissance flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina  and Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War . A Swiss RG-8A Condor , used as a flying communication station, also failed to save the operation, which suffered from bad weather and problems with satellite communications.

The US Air Force used the base from April to November 1995 . She flew reconnaissance flights with Predator drones over the war zone in Bosnia. The material was  flown in with a C-130 Hercules . Over 70 Americans were stationed in Gjadër.

During the civil war-like lottery uprising in 1997, the airfield was stormed by civilians and several buildings, including the control tower , were destroyed. On March 16, 1997, the soldiers withdrew from the base. Repair work was subsequently not carried out. In 2000, flight operations were officially ceased.

Unused terrain

Old aircraft are still stored in the caverns of Gjadër. Soldiers are no longer stationed there. There are no current plans to reactivate the airport.

The village of Gjadër has meanwhile expanded far into the area of ​​the military airfield. Today there are residential buildings next to the old side runway and taxiways.

The main runway was popular with young men from the surrounding cities for night car races.

In 2014, the runways of the airfield were blocked by the state with concrete blocks after it became public that drug smugglers had repeatedly used  the fallow airfield - along with others in the country.

Web links

Commons : Gjadër Air Base  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual proof

  1. ↑ a b Air Force History. In: Armed Forces of Albania. Accessed August 11, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Official map 1: 50,000 of the military cartographic office of Albania, sheet K-34-76-A Barbullushi, 2nd edition 1988.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Gjadër. In: Abandoned, Forgotten, & Little Known Airfields in Europe. December 25, 2018, accessed May 10, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Albanian Military Air Bases and Airfields. In: aeroflight.co.uk. Retrieved May 10, 2020 (English).
  5. ↑ Rezarta Delisula: Tirana-Mahnia . Maluka, Tirana 2018, ISBN 978-9928-26018-5 , Albania in the 30s, where aircrafts replaced cars, p. 71-73 .
  6. ↑ Digitalb : Enigma: Baza ajrore Gjadër on YouTube , accessed on January 3, 2017.
  7. ↑ Chronological Listing of Albanian Ejections and Losses (English) ( Memento from November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Wim Das, Kees Otten: Albanian Airforce - Tirana's moving steps . Ed .: Dutch Aviation Support. 2007, p. 3 f . ( dutchaviationsupport.com [PDF; accessed May 14, 2020]).
  9. ↑ a b Han de Ridder: Gjadër-Zadrima air base on YouTube , accessed on September 29, 2014.
  10. ↑ Denion Ndrenika: Droga me avion, i arrestuari Bajrami: Betonizuan Gjadrin, u zgjodh Divjaka. In: illyriapress.com. May 12, 2014, accessed May 11, 2020 (Albanian).