Metz-Frescaty military airfield
| Aéroport de Metz | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | LFSF | ||
| IATA code | MZM | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 192 m (630 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 5 km southwest of Metz | ||
| Street |
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| Basic data | |||
| opening | 4th July 1909 | ||
| operator | lastly Armée de l'air | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 01/19 | 2400 m × 45 m asphalt | ||
For decades, the Aéroport de Metz was mainly used as a military airfield . It is located in the Grand Est region in the Moselle department , about five kilometers west of the center of Metz .
Following the closure of the Base aérienne 128 Metz-Frescaty (BA 128) military airfield of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ) in the summer of 2012, a gendarmerie helicopter unit is the main user.
The civil joint use was previously made from a small terminal on the west side of the site. At the beginning of the 1980s, over 100,000 passengers were handled annually, with flights to Paris , Lille , Mulhouse , Lyon and Mönchengladbach . After regular passenger traffic moved to today 's Metz-Nancy-Lorraine airport in 1991 , Frescaty continued to be used for general aviation flights.
history
In German times, Metz was an important garrison town for the German Army . Boasting 1,909 five kilometers south-west of Metz, between Augny and the Castle Frescaty a Zeppelin - Hangar that with the arrival of LZ3 ( ZI opened) on 4 July 1909th In addition to the airship troops, the air force of the German Army Air Force also used Metz-Frescaty as a military airfield during the First World War . In the summer of 1914 Frescaty was the base of Field Aviation Division 2, Fortress Aviation Division 1 and Feldluftschiffer-Troops 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22. The airfield was repeatedly the target of enemy air attacks during the war. Jasta 11 was located here at the end of the war .
After the war, the square became the location of the French Air Force , which used it mainly as a bomber base in the interwar period. During the western campaign , the base, which had been called Base aérienne 111 (BA 111) since 1934, was bombed twice by the German air force in the early summer of 1940 .
He continued to use this himself after the dispute ended. Between September 1942 and March 1944 up to three squadrons of the II. Group of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 (II./NJG 4) lay here with a brief interruption in January / February 1944 and in 1943 a training unit for dive bombers , the battle wing 103 (SG 103), came here. , add. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) flew repeated air attacks on the air base , usually parallel to the attacks of the heavy bombers of the US 8th Air Force to hold German interceptors on the ground.
Four weeks after it was captured by American troops in November 1944, operations by the USAAF's Ninth Air Force began at the poorly repaired airfield, now known as Airfield Y-34 . American fighter-bombers lay here until April 1945, which is why the air force attacked the place again. It was the 365th , 368th , 406th and 371st Fighter Group , one after the other, for several weeks each .
After initial repairs and extensions, Frescaty was reopened in 1951. The renovations continued until 1956, the year in which the Armée de l'air first stationed aircraft here again. The airfield, designated as Base aérienne 128 (BA 128) from the summer of 1956, was a base for various types of aircraft in the following decades.
The first aircraft formation from April 1956 was the 9th Fighter Wing , 9e escadre de chasse , which had previously been based at 139 Lahr and converted to the F-84F in the summer of that year . The squadron was disbanded in mid-1965.
In 1967, moved also from Lahr coming, the groupe électronique 35/351 with a squadron of escadrille électronique 54 , Noratlas Gabriel to Metz. The group was upgraded to a squadron in 1988, the 54e escadre électronique tactique with the 1st group, escadron électronique 1/54 (EE 1/54) and the EE 1/54 upgraded to the Transall Gabriel in 1989 . The 54th squadron was disbanded in 2006 and the escadron électronique aéroporté 11/54 group, which has been independent since then, moved to the base 105 Évreux-Fauville in 2011 .
In September 1972, Metz also became the base of the helicopter group escadron d'hélicoptères 2/67 (EH 2/67) "Valmy", but initially only the Alouette II component while the H-34s remained in St.Dizier for two years . The conversion to the Alouette III began in late 1973 and the renewed conversion to the AS555UN took place in the first quarter of 1990. From 1978 Frescaty was also the home base of the escadron de liaisons aériennes 41 (ELA 41) with their Nord 262D , MS.760 and MH. 1521 , which in 1983 became the escadron de transport et entrainement 41 (ETE 41) "Verdun". The MH.1521 were flown until 1987. In 2004, the two units were merged to form the mixed transport group escadron de transport mixte 1/40 (ETM 1/40) "Moselle", which were only equipped with TBM 700 and AS555. She moved to Base 102 Dijon in 2011 .
Just five years before military flight operations were discontinued, the Center d'instruction des équipages d'hélicoptères 341 (CIEH.341) was added to base 128, which was moved to base 115 in 2011 .
