Tripoli International Airport

Tripoli International Airport مطار طرابلس العالمي
Characteristics
ICAO code	HLLT
IATA code	TIP
Coordinates	32 ° 39 '49 "  N , 13 ° 9' 32"  E Coordinates: 32 ° 39 '49 "  N , 13 ° 9' 32"  E
Height above MSL	80 m (262  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	34 km south of Tripoli , Libya
Basic data
Passengers	3,100,000
Start-and runway
09/27	3600 m × 45 m asphalt

The Tripoli International Airport , Arabic مطار طرابلس العالمي, DMG Maṭār Ṭarābulus al-ʿālamī , is located near Ben Gashir , 34 km south of the city center of Tripoli .

It is the largest airport in Libya and served as the home base for Afriqiyah Airways (since 2001), Libyan Airlines (since 1963) and Alajnihah Airways . The airport has an asphalt runway , which is equipped with an instrument landing system. In July 2014 it was destroyed during fighting in the Libyan Civil War and remained closed for several years. In the meantime, traffic was handled via Mitiga International Airport . The reopening for passenger operations took place in July 2017.

history

Aerial view of the Tripoli airport

Italian base

The facility was built as the Italian air force base in Castelbeito during the colonial period. Units of the Italian 5th Air Corps were located here during the Second World War . As part of the Allied theater of war in the Mediterranean region of World War II , the colony of Italian Libya was lost in the Axis powers' Africa campaign from 1943 and the airfield was used by the British Royal Air Force under the name RAF Castel Benito .

British base

In the 1950s and 1960s the military airfield was called RAF Idris . On July 29, 1953, the signing of a friendship and assistance treaty between the young Kingdom of Libya and Great Britain, which renamed the airfield in Tripoli Idris International Airport . The British Air Force received rights of disposal at this airport and at El-Adam near Tobruk , while the US Air Force operated the neighboring Wheelus Air Force Base . During the Suez Crisis in 1956, airfields in Egypt were bombed by British forces. British fighter planes also used Libyan air bases for their operations on the Suez. When Gaddafi came to power , the license agreement ended prematurely in 1969.

Libyan usage

In 1978 the airport was modernized for national and international air traffic. The terminal for international flights that exists today is based on a design by the British engineer Alexander Gibb.

In September 2007 the Libyan government announced expansion plans for Tripoli International. A consortium of companies from Brazil, Turkey, Lebanon and France was awarded the contract for an investment volume of 2.1 billion US dollars (approx. 1.6 billion euros). Two new terminals are being built, each with an area of ​​162,000 square meters, which together have a capacity of 20 million passengers per year. Although the first construction work began in autumn 2007, the completion of the project was delayed further. In view of the desperate conditions in Libya, no further construction is expected in the foreseeable future.

On the night of August 24-25, 2011, fighting between rebels and troops loyal to Gaddafi broke out at the airport in the wake of the civil war in Libya . An airplane went up in flames.

Islamist militias captured the airport on August 23, 2014 . This was preceded by fights that had lasted since mid-July 2014 and in which more than 200 people were killed. It is believed that eleven passenger planes fell into the hands of the Islamists.

Since 2017 the headquarters of the armed forces of Libya , which are associated with Fayiz as-Sarradsch , has been on the building of the airport.

Incidents

The following incidents occurred in connection with flight operations at the airport:

• On February 1, 1949, an Avro York I of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) ( aircraft registration G-AGJD) turned to the right during crosswind take-off at the Tripoli-Castel Benito military airfield; it was over-corrected and the machine crashed. All 15 occupants, 6 crew members and 9 passengers survived.

• On September 21, 1955, after three failed approach attempts, a Canadair C-4 Argonaut of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (G-ALHL) was flown off-road when, on the fourth attempt, the machine grazed trees 360 meters from the runway and fell ( Controlled flight into terrain ). Of the 47 people on board, 15 were killed.

• On April 22, 1956, an Avro York C.1 of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) (G-AGNS) was irreparably damaged on the ground at Tripoli Idris International Airport. All inmates survived.

• On June 1, 1970, after two failed approaches to runway 18, a Tupolev Tu-104A of the Czechoslovak CSA (OK-NDD) was flown into the area when the pilots made a third attempt from the opposite direction. In this CFIT ( controlled flight into terrain ) all 13 people on board were killed, ten crew members and three passengers.

• On January 2, 1971, the De Havilland DH.106 Comet 4C SU-ALC operated by United Arab Airlines touched a dune at an altitude of almost 120 meters when approaching . During this controlled flight into terrain , everyone on board, eight passengers and eight crew members died.

• On 27 July 1989, a stripped McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 of Korean Air (HL7328) during the approach to the runway 27 four houses and several cars. The approach was carried out despite the failure of the instrument landing system ILS and extremely poor visibility conditions (30 to 240 m). Of the 199 people on board, 75 perished, including three of the 18 crew members. In addition, four people were killed on the ground (see also Korean Air Flight 803 ) .

• On December 22, 1992, a Boeing 727-2L5 of the Libyan Arab Airlines (5A-DIA) collided with a MiG-23UB of the Libyan Air Force while approaching at an altitude of 3500 feet (around 1100 m) and crashed. All 157 people died on board the Boeing. The two occupants of the fighter plane survived (see also Libyan Arab Airlines flight 1103 ) .

• On May 12, 2010, an Airbus A330-202 operated by Afriqiyah Airways (5A-ONG) also crashed while approaching, shortly before reaching the runway. Of the 104 passengers and crew members 103 died, only one child survived the accident (see also Afriqiyah Airways flight 771 ) .

See also

• Mitiga International Airport
• List of commercial airports in Africa

Web links

Commons : Tripoli International Airport  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

 Wikinews: Tripoli Airport  - in the news

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Airport data on World Aero Data ( English, as of 2006 )
2. ↑ Smartraveller.gov.au - Libya ( en ) Retrieved January 8, 2018.
3. ↑ Heavy fighting over the airport of Tripoli . dw.de. Retrieved May 20, 2015
4. ↑ Misrata militias seize Tripoli airport Spiegel Online August 23, 2014
5. ↑ At least 47 dead in fighting in Libya www.nzz.ch July 21, 2014
6. ↑ Islamists conquer Tripoli airport Der Tagesspiegel August 24, 2014
7. ↑ Islamist group in Libya took over airport: USA warn of terror: eleven passenger planes disappeared - video. In: Focus Online . September 3, 2014, accessed October 14, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Accident statistics Tripoli International Airport , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 20, 2018.
9. ^ Accident report Avro York G-AGJD , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 27, 2019.
10. ^ Accident report North Star G-ALHL , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 19, 2016.
11. ^ Accident report Avro York G-AGNS , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 27, 2019.
12. ^ Accident report TU-104 OK-NDD , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16, 2016.
13. ^ Accident report Comet 4C SU-ALC , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16, 2016.
14. ^ Accident report DC-10 HL7328 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16, 2016.
15. ^ Accident report B-727-200 5A-DIA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16, 2016.
16. ↑ Accident report A330-200 5A-ONG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 20, 2018.