Alice Springs Airport

Encyclopedia : A : AL : ALI : Alice Springs Airport

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Alice Springs Airport is a small regional airport located 14 km south of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

The airport has three runways, the largest of which can accommodate a Boeing 747 or 777 landing (but not a fully loaden takeoff due to high temperatures and the runway length). The airport handles domestic flights only. The airport is not subject to a curfew and operates 24 hours a day.

Contents

1 History

1.1 1972 hijacking
1.2 1977 suicide pilot
1.3 Corporatisation

2 External links
3 References

History

On 5th October 1921 the first aircraft landed at the original airport located in the Alice Springs Township. Connellan Airways (later to become Connair) was based here from 1939. The military buildup in the north of Australia in the late 1930s saw the need for an airport that could take larger and heavier aircraft. This led to the construction of Seven Mile Aerodrome and the diminshed role of the Town Site Drome from 1946 until its evenutal abandoment in 1968. It is now the site of the Central Australian Aviation Museum.

Seven Mile Aerodrome was originally built in 1940 by the Australian Department of Defence and was used primarily by the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Air Force, to bring troops and supplies into the area. The airport became the main transit base for RAAF transport planes during World War II. Several civilian aircraft were permitted at the airport, but during the war its primary purpose was military as a refuelling and staging facility, as the airport was strategically located near the Pacific Theater of Operations.

In 1958 it officially became Alice Springs Airport. The main runway was extended to its present lenght of 2438m in 1961.

1972 hijacking

Alice Springs Airport was the site of the resolution of Australia's first domestic aircraft hijacking. On 15 November 1972, an Ansett Fokker F27 Friendship was hijacked after taking off from Adelaide International Airport. The hijacker, Miloslav Hrabinec, threatened the pilot with a rifle and demanded to be given a parachute and flown to the desert. He was convinced to allow the plane to land at Alice Springs, where he engaged in a shoot-out with Northern Territory Police, critically wounding a police officer before shooting himself in the head.

1977 suicide pilot

Tragedy struck the airport again on 5 January 1977, when a former employee of Connair (formerly Connellan Airways) stole a plane and flew it into the Connair offices located at the airport, killing himself and two of the airline's engineers instantly. A woman working in the offices received severe burns and died five days later.

Corporatisation

On 1st April 1989 the Federal Airports Corporation (FAC) assumed control of the airport. On 10 June 1998, the Australian Government granted a 50 year lease plus a 49 year option to Northern Territory Airports Pty Ltd. Northern Territory Airports is 100% owned by Airport Developments Group (which also operates Tennant Creek Airport). Northern Territory Airports Pty Ltd has 100% ownership of Alice Springs Airport Pty Ltd (along with the Darwin International Airport).

External links

References

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