[Showcase] The Rolling Stones' 14-On-Fire tour-jet

For their 2014 world tour '14 On Fire' The Rolling Stones chartered this...

28 year-old B767-200ER (Reg.: ZS-DJI, Ser.nr.: 23624 LN: 144)...

from Aeronexus based in South Africa currently operating only this aircraft.

[In Footsteps Of Regs] 'The Starship'

N7201U in original United Airlines livery

The Starship was a former United Airlines Boeing 720 passenger jet, bought by Bobby Sherman and his manager, Ward Sylvester, and leased to touring musical artists in the mid-1970s.

The Starship, N7201U (S/N: 17907), was the first Boeing 720 built. It was delivered to United Airlines on October 1960 and then purchased in 1973 by Contemporary Entertainment.

N7201U as 'Starship'

English rock band Led Zeppelin used the aircraft for their 1973 and 1975 North American concert tours. During the 1972 tour and in the early part of the 1973 tour the band had hired a small private Falcon Jet to transport its members from city to city, but these aircraft are comparatively light and susceptible to turbulence. After performing a show at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco in 1973 Led Zeppelin encountered bad turbulence on a flight back to Los Angeles. As a result, the band's manager Peter Grant resolved to hire The Starship for the remainder of the tour, at a cost of $30,000 ($2,500 a day or $5 a mile).

Highly modified cabin interior for star amenities

The aircraft was the same type as used by commercial airlines, but its owners allowed it to be specifically modified to suit the whim of their clients. Purchased from the airline by Contemporary Entertainment for $750,000, owner Ward Sylvester invested almost $200,000 to reduce its seating capacity to forty and to install into the main cabin a bar, seats and tables, revolving arm chairs, a 30-foot-long (9.1 m) couch (running along the right hand side of the plane, opposite the bar), a television set and a video cassette player, complete with a well-stocked video library. An electronic organ was built into the bar, and at the rear of the craft were two back rooms, one with a low couch and pillows on the floor, and the other, a bedroom, complete with a white fur bedspread and shower room which was also popular with the band members.

“They painted their name across the fuselage, snorted cocaine with rolled-up hundreds and treated the master suite like a pay-by-the-hour motel,” wrote Steve Kurutz in 2003 NY Times article, “Jimmy Page, used the Starship as a personal hideaway, retreating into the master bedroom — with its queen-size waterbed, fake fur bedspread and shower — to deepen his heroin habit and hide his teenage girlfriend, Lori Maddox. 

Flying on The Starship, Led Zeppelin were no longer required to change hotels so often. They could base themselves in large cities such as Chicago, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles and travel to and from concerts within flying distance. After each show, the band members would be transported direct by limousine from the concert venue to the airport, as depicted in the Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains the Same.

N7201U 'Starship' with American-flag paint scheme

The Starship was used throughout Led Zeppelin's 1975 US concert tour, this time featuring a different red-and-blue paint scheme with white stars similar to the United States flag, and with a smaller "Led Zeppelin" logo on the fuselage. According to Peter Grant, at one point during this tour Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham sat in the co-pilot's seat and assisted in flying the plane all the way from New York to Los Angeles [it's rumored that he did not have a pilot license - the editor].

 The exterior of the plane was re-sprayed with Led Zeppelin emblazoned down the side of the fuselage. The Starship is included at the end of "Stairway to Heaven" on disc 2 of the Led Zeppelin DVD with both its 1973 and 1975 paint schemes.

English rock band Deep Purple hired The Starship for their 1974 U.S. Tour. They can be seen arriving in the jet with the band's name emblazoned on the jet in the DVD for the infamous California Jam rock festival, entitled Live in California 74. In an interview with Circus magazine in 1974, Deep Purple's Jon Lord explained: "It's a 707 put together by a firm in L.A. that Sinatra, Dylan and The Band just used and Elton John uses. It has a lounge, a bedroom, a shower and a study. It's supposed to look as little as a plane as possible."

In 1975, the Rolling Stones leased the Starship for their tour. “For the Stones, there was an added bonus: (...) it solved the longstanding problem of Keith Richards’s tardiness. The often comatose guitarist could now be propped up, wheeled onto the tarmac and tossed aboard the plane, where Suzee would be waiting with his favored drink, a Tequila Sunrise.” – Steve Kurutz, NY Times. 

The Allman Brothers and Alice Cooper were also Starship clients. Peter Frampton was the last to charter The Starship in 1976. As early as Alice Cooper's 1974 tour the aircraft was beginning to show signs of engine difficulties, and for Led Zeppelin's 1977 US Tour, it was permanently grounded at Long Beach Airport. The band was forced to find a comparable alternative, and tour manager Richard Cole eventually chartered Caesar's Chariot, a 45-seat Boeing 707 owned by the Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas.

N7201U in 1978

The aircraft had a very short run as chauffeur to the stars between 1973 to 1976. It’s client list also included the likes of John Lennon, the Bee Gees and Olivia Newton John. During the oil embargo, the plane went through many owners and eventually ended up in the UK’s Luton Airport storage hull. It was eventually sold to a Middle Eastern buyer who dismantled it for parts in 1982.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starship
http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/07/10/im-with-the-band-on-their-private-jet/

D. B. Cooper - the only unsolved air-piracy in America

Passengers embarking via an air-stair of a Lufthansa B727

D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,160,000 in 2014), and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an ongoing FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history.

The suspect purchased his airline ticket using the alias Dan Cooper, but due to a news media miscommunication he became known in popular lore as "D. B. Cooper". Hundreds of leads have been pursued in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility have been proposed by experts, reporters, and amateur enthusiasts. The discovery of a small cache of ransom bills in 1980 triggered renewed interest but ultimately only deepened the mystery, and the great majority of the ransom remains unrecovered.

While FBI investigators have stated from the beginning that Cooper probably did not survive his risky jump, the agency maintains an active case file - which has grown to more than 60 volumes - and continues to solicit creative ideas and new leads from the public. "Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream," suggested Special Agent Larry Carr, leader of the investigation team since 2006. "Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle."

Hijacking

The incident began mid-afternoon on Thanksgiving eve, November 24, 1971, at Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon. A man carrying a black attaché case approached the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines. He identified himself as "Dan Cooper" and purchased a one-way ticket on Flight 305, a 30-minute trip to Seattle, Washington.

FBI's wanted poster of Cooper

Cooper boarded the aircraft, a Boeing 727-100 (FAA registration N467US), and took seat 18C (18E by one account, 15D by another) in the rear of the passenger cabin. He lit a cigarette and ordered a bourbon and soda. Eyewitnesses on board recalled a man in his mid-forties, between 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) and 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) tall. He wore a black lightweight raincoat, loafers, a dark suit, a neatly pressed white collared shirt, a black necktie, and a mother of pearl tie pin.

Flight 305, approximately one-third full, took off on schedule at 2:50 pm, local time (PST). Cooper passed a note to Florence Schaffner, the flight attendant situated nearest to him in a jumpseat attached to the aft stair door. Schaffner, assuming the note contained a lonely businessman's phone number, dropped it unopened into her purse. Cooper leaned toward her and whispered, "Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb."

The note was printed in neat, all-capital letters with a felt pen. It read, approximately, "I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked." Schaffner did as requested, then quietly asked to see the bomb. Cooper cracked open his briefcase long enough for her to glimpse eight red cylinders ("four on top of four") attached to wires coated with red insulation, and a large cylindrical battery. After closing the briefcase, he dictated his demands: $200,000 in "negotiable American currency"; four parachutes (two primary and two reserve); and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft upon arrival. Schaffner conveyed Cooper's instructions to the cockpit; when she returned, he was wearing dark sunglasses.

Cpt. Scott, F/O Rataczak, F/A Mucklow and S/O Anderson

The pilot, William Scott, contacted Seattle-Tacoma Airport air traffic control, which in turn informed local and federal authorities. The 36 other passengers were informed that their arrival in Seattle would be delayed because of a "minor mechanical difficulty". Northwest Orient's president, Donald Nyrop, authorized payment of the ransom and ordered all employees to cooperate fully with the hijacker. The aircraft circled Puget Sound for approximately two hours to allow Seattle police and the FBI time to assemble Cooper's parachutes and ransom money, and to mobilize emergency personnel.

Schaffner recalled that Cooper appeared familiar with the local terrain; at one point he remarked, "Looks like Tacoma down there," as the aircraft flew above it. He also mentioned, correctly, that McChord Air Force Base was only a 20-minute drive from Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Schaffner described him as calm, polite, and well-spoken, not at all consistent with the stereotypes (enraged, hardened criminals or "take-me-to-Cuba" political dissidents) popularly associated with air piracy at the time. Tina Mucklow, another flight attendant, agreed. "He wasn't nervous," she told investigators. "He seemed rather nice. He was never cruel or nasty. He was thoughtful and calm all the time." He ordered a second bourbon and water, paid his drink tab (and insisted Schaffner keep the change), and offered to request meals for the flight crew during the stop in Seattle.

FBI agents assembled the ransom money from several Seattle-area banks - 10,000 unmarked 20-dollar bills, many with serial numbers beginning with the letter "L" indicating issuance by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, most carrying a "Series 1969-C" designation - and made a microfilm photograph of each of them. Cooper rejected the military-issue parachutes initially offered by authorities, demanding instead civilian parachutes with manually operated ripcords. Seattle police obtained them from a local skydiving school.

Passengers released

N467US during refuelling at Seattle-Tacoma Airport

At 5:24 pm Cooper was informed that his demands had been met, and at 5:39 pm the aircraft landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Cooper instructed Scott to taxi the jet to an isolated, brightly lit section of the tarmac and extinguish lights in the cabin to deter police snipers. Northwest Orient's Seattle operations manager, Al Lee, approached the aircraft in street clothes (to avoid the possibility that Cooper might mistake his airline uniform for that of a police officer) and delivered the cash-filled knapsack and parachutes to Mucklow via the aft stairs. Once the delivery was completed Cooper permitted all passengers, Schaffner, and senior flight attendant Alice Hancock to leave the plane.

During refueling Cooper outlined his flight plan to the cockpit crew: a southeast course toward Mexico City at the minimum airspeed possible without stalling the aircraft (approximately 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph)) at a maximum 10,000 foot (3,000 m) altitude. He further specified that the landing gear remain deployed in the takeoff/landing position, the wing flaps be lowered 15 degrees, and the cabin remain unpressurized. Copilot William Rataczak informed Cooper that the aircraft's range was limited to approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) under the specified flight configuration, which meant that a second refueling would be necessary before entering Mexico. Cooper and the crew discussed options and agreed on Reno, Nevada, as the refueling stop. Finally, Cooper directed that the plane take off with the rear exit door open and its staircase extended. Northwest's home office objected, on grounds that it was unsafe to take off with the aft staircase deployed. Cooper countered that it was indeed safe, but he would not argue the point; he would lower it himself once they were airborne.

An FAA official requested a face-to-face meeting with Cooper aboard the aircraft, which was denied. The refueling process was delayed due to a vapor lock in the fuel tanker truck's pumping mechanism, and Cooper became suspicious; but he allowed a replacement tanker truck to continue the refueling - and a third after the second ran dry.

Back in the air

At approximately 7:40 pm the 727 took off with only Cooper, pilot Scott, flight attendant Mucklow, copilot Rataczak, and flight engineer H. E. Anderson aboard. Two F-106 fighter aircraft scrambled from nearby McChord Air Force Base followed behind the airliner, one above it and one below, out of Cooper's view. A Lockheed T-33 trainer, diverted from an unrelated Air National Guard mission, also shadowed the 727 until it ran low on fuel and turned back near the Oregon-California border.

After takeoff Cooper told Mucklow to join the rest of the crew in the cockpit and remain there with the door closed. As she complied, Mucklow observed Cooper tying something around his waist. At approximately 8:00 pm a warning light flashed in the cockpit, indicating that the aft airstair apparatus had been activated. The crew's offer of assistance via the aircraft's intercom system was curtly refused. The crew soon noticed a subjective change of air pressure, indicating that the aft door was open.

Animation showing how Cooper could have left the B727

At approximately 8:13 pm the aircraft's tail section sustained a sudden upward movement, significant enough to require trimming to bring the plane back to level flight. At approximately 10:15 pm Scott and Rataczak landed the 727, with the aft airstair still deployed, at Reno Airport. FBI agents, state troopers, sheriff's deputies, and Reno police surrounded the jet, as it had not yet been determined with certainty that Cooper was no longer aboard; but an armed search quickly confirmed that he was gone.

Theories and conjectures

Operation manual of a B727 air-stair

The FBI task force believes that Cooper was a careful and shrewd planner. He demanded four parachutes to force the assumption that he might compel one or more hostages to jump with him, thus ensuring he would not be deliberately supplied with sabotaged equipment. He chose a 727-100 aircraft because it was ideal for a bail-out escape, due not only to its aft airstair, but also the high, aftward placement of all three engines, which allowed a reasonably safe jump without risk of immediate incineration by jet exhaust. It had "single-point fueling" capability, a recent innovation which allowed all tanks to be refueled rapidly through a single fuel port. It also had the ability (unusual for a commercial jet airliner) to remain in slow, low-altitude flight without stalling; and Cooper knew how to control its air speed and altitude without entering the cockpit, where he could have been overpowered by the three pilots. In addition, Cooper was familiar with important details, such as the appropriate flap setting of 15 degrees (which was unique to that aircraft), and the typical refueling time. He knew that the aft airstair could be lowered during flight - a fact never disclosed to civilian flight crews, since there was no situation on a passenger flight that would make it necessary - and that its operation, by a single switch in the rear of the cabin, could not be overridden from the cockpit. He may even have known that the Central Intelligence Agency had been using 727s to drop agents and supplies behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War.

Assuming that Cooper was not a paratrooper, but was an Air Force veteran, Carr believes that he could have been an aircraft cargo loader. Such an assignment would have given him knowledge and experience in the aviation industry; and loaders - because they throw cargo out of flying aircraft - wear emergency parachutes and receive rudimentary jump training. Such training would have given Cooper a working knowledge of parachutes - but "not necessarily sufficient knowledge to survive the jump he made."

Airport security

The Cooper hijacking marked the beginning of the end for unfettered and unscrutinized airline travel. Despite initiation of the federal Sky Marshal program the previous year, 31 hijackings were committed in U.S. airspace in 1972, 19 of them for the specific purpose of extorting money. (Most of the rest were attempts to reach Cuba.) In 15 of the extortion cases the hijackers also demanded parachutes. In early 1973 the FAA began requiring airlines to search all passengers and their bags. Amid multiple lawsuits charging that such searches violated Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure, federal courts ruled that they were acceptable when applied universally, and when limited to searches for weapons and explosives. In contrast to the 31 hijackings in 1972, only two were attempted in 1973, both by psychiatric patients, one of whom intended to crash the airliner into the White House to kill President Nixon.

Aircraft modifications

Cooper vane

A Cooper vane (also sometimes called a "Dan Cooper switch" or "D.B. Cooper device") is a mechanical aerodynamic wedge that prevents the ventral airstair of an aircraft being lowered in flight. Following three hijackings in 1972, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered that Boeing 727 aircraft be fitted with Cooper vanes.The Cooper vane is a very simple device consisting of a spring-loaded paddle connected to a plate. When the aircraft is on the ramp, the spring keeps the paddle perpendicular to the fuselage, and the attached plate does not block the stairway. As the aircraft takes off, the airflow pushes the paddle parallel to the fuselage and the plate is moved underneath the stairway, preventing it being lowered. Once the airflow decreases on landing, the spring-loaded paddle returns to its initial position, thereby allowing the stairs to be lowered again. Although this device was intended to prevent hijackings aboard the 727 and other aircraft with a ventral airstair, many airlines sealed the airstair entirely, never to use it again.

A less-well-known modification mandated as a direct result of the hijacking was the installation of peepholes in all cockpit doors, making it possible for the cockpit crew to observe events in the passenger cabin with the cockpit door closed.

Subsequent history of N467US

In 1978 the hijacked 727-100 aircraft was sold by Northwest to Piedmont Airlines where it was reregistered N838N and continued in domestic carrier service. In 1984 it was purchased by the now-defunct charter company Key Airlines, reregistered N29KA, and incorporated into the Air Force's civilian charter fleet that shuttled workers between Nellis Air Force Base and the Tonopah Test Range during the top-secret F-117 Nighthawk development program. In 1996 the aircraft was scrapped for parts in a Memphis boneyard.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_vane

Wheel-well stowaways

Armando hospitalized

Disillusioned with the oppression of the Cuban regime, friends Armando Socarras and Jorge Perez Blanco felt their only way to freedom was to stowaway in the wheel well of a DC-8 jet bound for Madrid. The boys planned their departure for weeks and on June 3, 1969, executed their plan. They wore rubber-soled shoes to aid them in crawling up the wheels of the jet and carried ropes to secure themselves inside the wheel well. After the plane took off, Armando was almost crushed by the wheels as they folded into the compartment where he was hiding. With temperatures at -41 degrees Fahrenheit and the oxygen thinning, he drifted in and out of consciousness, unsure about what had happened to his friend. When the plane landed in Madrid, Armando plopped out onto the tarmac. His clothes were frozen and his temperature was so low that it didn't register on the thermometer, but he was alive. And free. Jorge didn't fare as well – he was believed to have been knocked down by the jet blast and imprisoned in Cuba or may have fallen to his death.

A similar tragic case in 1970

In October 1996, a couple in pub garden spotted a body falling from a DC-9 as it approached London's Heathrow airport. 19-year-old stowaway Vijay Saini was already dead when he fell 2000 feet. His brother, Pardeep, somehow survived the 10-hour journey from Delhi to London in temperatures of minus 60 degrees Celsius and winds six times stronger than a hurricane as the British Airways jet cruised at 35,000 feet. Pardeep told authorities he and his brother were forced to leave after being linked to Sikh militants and found a man in Delhi who said he would help them – for a price. The man convinced them they could access the baggage hold from the wheel well of a plane and fly safely. Once inside, they realized that was impossible, but the plane had already started to move. Moments after take-off, the screaming, terrified brothers were pinned opposite corners of the wheel house. Pardeep passed out and didn't come to until the plane reached Heathrow. In that time, Vijay likely began to hallucinate from lack of oxygen as his body temperature dipped to fatal levels. When the captain opened the landing gear doors, Vijay simply fell from the sky. Pardeep woke up and staggered onto the tarmac barely able to speak. He was rushed to the hospital with severe hypothermia. The pilot, Captain Post, later wrote to Pardeep and congratulated him on his "near-miraculous survival." He said, "I hope that in the future I may have the pleasure of carrying you as a legitimate passenger on the INSIDE of the airplane."

Not much is known about Tahitian stowaway Fidel Maruhi, a man who survived a 4000-mile, 7½-hour journey from Papeete to Los Angeles in the wheel well of an Air France Jet in 2000. When Maruhi was discovered on a refueling stopover in Los Angeles, his body temperature was at 79 degrees, six degrees colder than what's considered fatal. Maruhi, who initially took the trip to meet his favorite footballer Zinedine Zidane, was sent back to Tahiti and remembers nothing of the journey, having blacked out just after takeoff.

While the exact details of what caused him to flee his native country are unknown, Victor Alvarez Molina tucked himself inside the landing gear of an airplane leaving Havana for Montreal after his wife called him at work warning him of trouble in 2002. Molina was ill-prepared against the freezing temperatures that reached minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit as the plane reached cruising altitude. For four hours, he clutched a photo of his daughter and prayed. Soon deprived of oxygen and becoming hypothermic, his saving grace was a broken compartment pipe which seeped out warm air and provided a convenient lifeline when the landing gear deployed. Once on the ground, Molina was treated for hypothermia and granted refugee status by the Canadian government.

How the stowaway made it to the UK

In 2010 a stowaway hid in the undercarriage of a jumbo jet and survived temperatures of -41 Celsius at 25,000ft during a free flight into Britain. The jobless Romanian crouched in the rear-wheel compartment during an extraordinary 800-mile trip from Vienna to London on a Boeing 747 owned by the Dubai royal family. When the privately owned Boeing landed at Heathrow, the 20-year-old stowaway tumbled on to the runway and was arrested by security staff. He said he had come to Britain to find work, was examined by paramedics but incredibly suffered only a few bruises and was fit enough to be interviewed by police and immigration officials.

Less than 24 hours later, he was released after accepting a police caution for being a stowaway and - because he is an EU national and proved his identity - was allowed to stay in Britain. A police source said: 'The plane would normally have flown at 37,000ft which would have killed him but it was flying lower because of thunder-storms. 'This, and the fact it was a short-haul flight, meant he survived. He's had a free flight and been released for his troubles. Welcome to England.'

The Romanian reportedly slipped under a perimeter fence at Vienna Airport on Sunday evening and made his way to a private jet owned by the Dubai royal family. He told police he climbed into the wheel compartment of the plane, which took off at about 7pm UK time. One hour and 37minutes later, it landed at Heathrow. Sources said the man fell or jumped soon after the aircraft touched down and was arrested at 8.48pm for stowing away on an aircraft, contrary to Article 143 of the Air Navigation Order 2009, which carries a maximum sentence of a £2,500 fine. He was taken to Heathrow police station but because he was apparently of previous good character, he was given a police caution and released from custody. The man was carrying ID and immigration officials were satisfied he was Romanian and entitled to stay. Home Office sources confirmed there were no immigration issues and that the UK Border Agency was not seeking to deport him.

The Sheikh who owns the plane has reportedly threatened legal action against Vienna airport officials. Vienna airport spokesman Peter Kleemann said: 'This is the first time we have ever had a case like this.' He said the man said 'he had had enough of Vienna and wanted to go somewhere else where he might find work'.

Vienna police spokesman Leo Lauber added: 'We are investigating, this is a high security area, we don't know how this could have happened. He claims he just climbed under the fence and then found a place on board the first aircraft he saw.' Mr Lauber admitted the ten miles of fencing around the airport perimeter are not constantly patrolled. The Austrian interior ministry begun an inquiry into the security breach. But a spokesman added that individual airlines should be responsible for their own security.

Daniel Ihekina during a radio report

In 2013, teenager Daniel Ihekina evaded security at Benin City Airport in Nigeria and hid in the undercarriage of an airplane on a flight to Lagos. It is believed he survived due to the short length of the flight which meant the plane's maximum altitude only reached 21,000 feet. Upon arrival in Lagos, passengers alerted crew when they saw the young stowaway emerging from the wheel cavity. According to officials, Daniel risked life and limb to escape mistreatment by his parents and thought the plane was headed to America. He was disappointed to find that the plane had never left Nigeria. In a lucky twist a fate, the Edo State Government has offered Daniel a scholarship to one of the top schools in the state. Governor Adams Oshiomole said, "We decided to support him by sending him to one of the top secondary schools in Edo State. The reason for opting for a boarding school is that we think that there is a need to closely watch him which his parents could not do. He is an intelligent young man with uncommon challenges, but one that has a vision."

Yahia Abdi

This year 15-year-old runaway Yahya Abdi miraculously survived a five-hour flight in the freezing wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines jet as it travelled from California to Hawaii. The stowaway snuck into the Mineta International Airport in San Jose by jumping a fence and holed up in rear left wheel well of the Boeing 767 in an attempt to reunite with his mother. He had recently learned she was alive after his father told him she was dead. Abdi quickly lost consciousness as the plane ascended to 38,000 feet and temperatures in the compartment dipped to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. An hour after the plane landed, the boy regained consciousness and emerged on the tarmac. He was spotted by a shocked ground crew. Abdi was questioned by the FBI and his story checked out. He was turned over to local child protection officials, given a medical exam and appears to be unharmed.

As of January 2014, there were 103 wheel-well stowaway attempts on 92 flights recorded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration since 1947, 23.3% of which were successful.

Fode Tounkara & Yaguine Koïta

Yaguine Koïta and Fodé Tounkara were stowaways who froze to death on a Sabena Airlines Airbus A330 (Flight 520) flying from Conakry, Guinea, to Brussels, Belgium, on July 28, 1999. Their bodies were discovered on August 2 in the airplane's rear right-hand wheel bay at Brussels International Airport, after having made at least three return trips between Conakry and Brussels. The boys were carrying plastic bags with birth certificates, school report cards, family photographs and a letter. This letter, written in imperfect French, was widely published in the world media. Their story was made into a film Early in the Morning (French: Un matin bonne heure) in 2006.

Excellencies, Messrs. members and officials of Europe,

We have the honorable pleasure and the great confidence in you to write this letter to speak to you about the objective of our journey and the suffering of us, the children and young people of Africa.

But first of all, we present to you life's most delicious, charming and respected greetings. To this effect, be our support and our assistance. You are for us, in Africa, those to whom it is necessary to request relief. We implore you, for the love of your continent, for the feeling that you have towards your people and especially for the affinity and love that you have for your children whom you love for a lifetime. Furthermore, for the love and meekness of our creator God the omnipotent one who gave you all the good experiences, wealth and ability to well construct and well organize your continent to become the most beautiful one and most admirable among the others.

Messrs. members and officials of Europe, we call out for your solidarity and your kindness for the relief of Africa. Do help us, we suffer enormously in Africa, we have problems and some shortcomings regarding the rights of the child.

In terms of problems, we have war, disease, malnutrition, etc. As for the rights of the child in Africa, and especially in Guinea, we have too many schools but a great lack of education and training. Only in the private schools can one have a good education and good training, but it takes a great sum of money. Now, our parents are poor and it is necessary for them to feed us. Furthermore, we have no sports schools where we could practice soccer, basketball or tennis.

This is the reason, we, African children and youth, ask you to create a big efficient organization for Africa to allow us to progress.

Therefore, if you see that we have sacrificed ourselves and risked our lives, this is because we suffer too much in Africa and that we need you to fight against poverty and to put an end to the war in Africa. Nevertheless, we want to learn, and we ask you to help us in Africa learn to be like you.

Finally, we appeal to you to excuse us very, very much for daring to write this letter to you, the great personages to whom we owe much respect. And do not forget it is to you whom we must lament about the weakness of our abilities in Africa.

Written by two Guinean children, Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaguine_Koita_and_Fod%C3%A9_Tounkara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wheel-well_stowaway_flights
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Ezeiza

Cesar Meloni nem bízta a véletrenre, amikor RAW-ban forgatott Buenos Aires nemzetközi repülőterén..

The weirdest stowaways

• Jul 24th 2012, Manchester
  
  A jet2.com Boeing 737-300, registration G-CELG performing flight LS-791 from Manchester, EN (UK) to Rome Fiumicino (Italy), departed with an 11 year old boy in the passenger cabin, who had run away from home and was making his way to Rome without boarding pass, passport or other papers. Other passengers realised in flight that the boy was travelling alone and informed cabin crew. In consultation of flight crew with dispatch it was discovered the boy was travelling as stowaway. The aircraft continued to Rome for a safe landing, the boy was kept aboard while all other passengers disembarked.
  
  The boy was returned to Manchester on board of the aircraft, that departed Rome as flight LS-792 with a delay of 2 hours as result of the boy's adventure and reached Manchester with a delay of 80 minutes, where the boy was handed back to his family.
  
  Police confirmed the boy had separated from his mother while she was shopping and went to the airport to take his way to Rome, while his mother started a search for him. After the crew called dispatch, police was able to identify his whereabouts and inform his mother and after the aircraft's return reunite the family.
  
  The airline confirmed the boy was travelling aboard their aircraft without proper papers after passing five security checks, where the lack of boarding pass and lack of travel documents went unnoticed. The relevant staff has been suspended pending investigation results.

• Oct 22nd 2012, San Francisco
  
  A China Airlines Boeing 747-400, registration B-18210 performing flight CI-4 (dep Oct 21st) from Taipei (Taiwan) to San Francisco,CA (USA), had completed a seemingly uneventful flight.
  
  Airport Authorities at San Francisco however discovered a passenger was arriving with a forged passport. Further investigation revealed the passenger had no ticket and was travelling from China via Taiwan to San Francisco, having come on board of the aircraft in Shanghai disguised as cleaning personnel before the aircraft departed for flight CI-504 from Shanghai's Pudong Airport (China) to Taipei. The man had been hiding on board of the aircraft in an electrical compartment inside the pressurized cabin all the way from Shanghai to San Francisco and thus had escaped detection by cleaning personnel, cabin crew and security personnel on all three airports.

• Dec 25th 2009, Madinah
  
  An Air India Airbus A330-200, hajj flight from Madinah (Saudi Arabia) to Jaipur (India) with 273 pilgrims, was about 45 minutes into the flight, when a stowaway was discovered in the aircraft cabin. The crew decided, he was not a threat to the safety of the flight and continued to Jaipur for a safe landing, where the stoaway was handed to airport security personnel. Police was informed several hours later early Saturday morning (Dec 26th).
  
  The circumstances of the discovery are not clear. The passengers reported, that the stowaway simply walked out of the toilet 45 minutes into the flight and took an empty seat, but stood out from the other passengers still wearing his overall. Police reported, that a flight attendant was puzzled about a toilet being locked up for a long time, therefore opened the toilet and found the stowaway.
  
  The Indian man (25) told the crew, that he had gone to Saudi Arabia 6 months earlier for work at the Madinah Airport as a loader, but hadn't been paid regularly and wanted back home, however the employer had confiscated his passport as is usual with foreign workers.
  
  Police is taking action against the stowaway for violations of the passport act and against Air India officials. India's Civil Aviation Authority have opened an investigation.

• Sep 13th 2011, Uberlandia
  
  A Gol Linhas Aereas Boeing 737-800, registration PR-GGP performing flight G3-1779 from Porto Alegre,RS to Brasilia,DF (Brazil), was enroute near Uberlandia,MG (Brazil) when the flight crew decided to divert to Uberlandia to verify suspicions of a stowaway on board after unusual noises had been heard from the cargo area of the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely, no surplus of people was found on board.
  
  The aircraft arrived in Brasilia with a delay of 2.5 hours.
  
  The airline confirmed that the aircraft was diverted to verify a suspected problem prompted by noises in the cabin.

• Jun 6th 2009, Washington
  
  An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-300, registration ET-ALJ performing flight ET-500 from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) via Rome Fiumicino (Italy) to Washington Dulles,DC (USA), had arrived in Washington without obvious incident. When the luggage handlers opened the cargo compartment and began to unload the luggage, they saw a hand amidst the luggage and found an exhausted and dehydrated man in his mid thirties. The man was brought to a hospital and taken into federal custody.
  
  Authorities believe, that the man had entered the cargo compartment in Ethiopia and remained in there for around 18 hours. They are about to send the man back to Ethiopia.

Source:
http://avherald.com

Rendition aircraft

Rendition aircraft are aircraft used by national governments to move prisoners internationally, a practice known as rendition, the illegal version of which is referred to as extraordinary rendition. The aircraft listed in this article have been identified in international news media as being used for prisoner transports.

N221SG in Kabul, 2010

N221SG is a nondescript Learjet 35 with the tail number "N221SG", reported in the media to possibly be used as a US Department of Defense prisoner transport. The plane is registered to Path Corporation of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, identified as a CIA front company.

When the aircraft landed in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 7, 2005, the Danish opposition party Red-Green Alliance demanded an explanation of the plane's presence.

The last flight originated in Istanbul, Turkey on March 7, 2005. Turkish media reported at the time that individuals of interest to the CIA captured by the country's security services were to be handed over to the American intelligence agency.

N313P

N313P/N4476S (manufacturer's construction number 33010/1037) is a plain white 737-7BC Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) that the Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday, February 6, 2007, flew from Tashkent to Kabul, Afghanistan on September 21, 2003, and then to Szczytno-Szymany International Airport in Poland, landing at 9 p.m. "It stayed on the ground for 57 minutes before taking off for Baneasa Airport in Bucharest, Romania, an airport that, according to the Marty Report, 'bears all the characteristics of a detainee transfer or drop-off point,'" states author Tom Hundley on page 14 of the Tribune. The 737 then continued on to Rabat, Morocco, and Guantanamo Bay, the Marty Report said. In 2004 the plane was used to render LIFG leader Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Bouchar to Libya.

"The registered owners of both planes [Boeing 737, N313P, and Gulfstream V, N379P] appear to be CIA front companies. Previous attempts by the Tribune to contact the owners produced a trail of non-existent people at unlikely addresses, or law firms that did not want to discuss the nature of their interest in aviation. Both planes have been involved in rendition cases documented by the Tribune, other media and EU investigators," states the Chicago daily on page 14.

The aircraft is reported by news media to be used as a US Department of Defense prisoner transport. It is also known as the "Guantánamo Bay Express".

The N313P registration for a Boeing 737 was subsequently cancelled, and it was reassigned to an experimental Van's Aircraft RV-7. The 737, previously owned by Premier Executive Transport Services, was re-registered as N4476S in ownership of Keeler&Tate Management a company located in Reno, Nevada.

N44982 with a later registration: VH-CCC

N44982

The Gulfstream V executive jet with manufacturer serial number 581, changed registrations several times to avoid detection. Among the collection of former registrations are tail numbers N44982 N8068V, N379P, N581GA). The aircraft has been reported in several press sources as a U.S. Department of Defense prisoner transport, also known as "Guantánamo Bay Express". The craft has been reported to being used to transport suspected terrorists to undisclosed locations for either extraordinary rendition or into the CIA prison system. It has been the subject of criminal complaints and parliamentary inquiries.

According to an in-depth investigation into the worldwide network of detention and interrogation facilities employed in the War on Terror, by the British Guardian newspaper, (March 2005):

We were able to chart the toing and froing of the private executive jet used at [an abduction in Sweden] partly through the observations of plane-spotters posted on the web and partly through a senior source in the Pakistan Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI). It was a Gulfstream V Turbo, tailfin number N379P; its flight plans always began at an airstrip in Smithfield, North Carolina, and ended in some of the world's hot spots. It was owned by Premier Executive Transport Services, incorporated in Delaware, a brass plaque company with nonexistent directors, hired by American agents to revive an old CIA tactic from the 1970s, when agency men had kidnapped South American criminals and flown them back to their own countries to face trial so that justice could be rendered. Now "rendering" was being used by the Bush administration to evade justice.

Robert Baer, a CIA case officer in the Middle East until 1997, told us how it works. "We pick up a suspect or we arrange for one of our partner countries to do it. Then the suspect is placed on civilian transport to a third country where, let's make no bones about it, they use torture. If you want a good interrogation, you send someone to Jordan. If you want them to be killed, you send them to Egypt or Syria. Either way, the U.S. cannot be blamed as it is not doing the heavy work."

Background

The first media mention of N379P was six weeks after September 11, 2001, when, according to the Chicago Tribune, a Pakistani newspaper reported that a student at the University of Karachi and a citizen of Yemen, had been seen being forced onto the plane at Jinnah International Airport by Pakistani security officers on the morning of October 23, 2001. The Chicago Tribune reported on the aircraft again on February 6, 2007, stating that N379P departed Washington Dulles International Airport July 27, 2003, and flew to Frankfurt, Germany according to FAA records. The FAA then records the Gulfstream taking off from Tashkent, Uzbekistan on July 31, 2003, bound for Glasgow, Scotland, and then return to Dulles. The Tribune then states that Polish aviation records indicate that N379P landed at Szczytno-Szymany International Airport, a remote airfield at Szymany, Poland, at 2:58 a.m. on July 30, 2003, after a flight from Afghanistan. How the aircraft moved from Frankfurt to Tashkent remains unreported. The Szymany airport is located southwest of the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence base in northern Poland.

The executive jet with the tail number N379P was again brought to public attention by Swedish TV4's documentary, Det brutna löftet ("The broken promise"), aired May 17, 2004. The documentary claimed that the expulsion of two men, Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad al-Zery - ordered by the Cabinet - to Egypt on December 18, 2001, was carried out by hooded U.S. agents. The plane booked by the Swedish Security Police (SÄPO) was cancelled when another plane arrived - N379P - a Gulfstream V executive jet supplied by the firm (Premier Executive Transport Services, Inc.) which works exclusively for the U.S. Defense Department.

Agiza and al-Zery were arrested and brought to Bromma airport in Stockholm where Swedish police handed them over to hooded operatives. The two prisoners had their clothes cut from their bodies by scissors, without their hand- and footcuffs being loosened. The naked and chained prisoners were given suppository of unknown kind inserted into their anus, and diapers were put on them. They were forcibly dressed in dark overalls. Their hands and feet are chained to a specially designed harness. On the plane, both men are blindfolded and hooded. The plane took off at 21.49 and set course towards Egypt.

Later on, when the Gulfstream's log books came into a journalist's hands, the wider scope became clear:

Analysis of the plane's flight plans, covering more than two years, shows that it always departs from Washington DC. It has flown to 49 destinations outside America, including the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba and other U.S. military bases, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.

Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes, which do not have special facilities for prisoners but are kitted out with tables for meetings and screens for presentations and in-flight films."

Registration history

Originally N581GA, it became N379P in 2000 when it was acquired by Premier Executive Transport Services. In December 2003, it became N8068V. On December 1, 2004, it was reregistered N44982, and ownership was transferred to Bayard Foreign Marketing, an apparent shell company registered in Portland, Oregon. Its registration was changed once more on January 20, 2006, as N126CH to XXXXX, 2930 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33137-4122. It was sold and reregistered to Wilmington Trust Company, 1100 N Market St, Wilmington, Delaware on August 18, 2006. The Aircraft was reregistered to VH-CCC and is now owned by Crown Melbourne Ltd, Australia where it is now used as a 'high roller' transport for Crown Casino.

Disappearance from the FAA's online registry

In January 2006, N44982 was re-registered as N126CH under N126CH Inc. Sometime in late 2006, the records for N44982 and N4476S seem to have disappeared from the FAA's registration database. In August 2006, the plane was again transferred to VH-CCC under Wilmington Trust Co Trustee. It is now under the ownership of Crown Melbourne Limited, to transport high rollers to their casino in Melbourne, Australia. As of 2014, N44982 is registered/reserved by a private person in New Jersey, USA.

Appearance in fiction

N379P appears in the episode "Hundrede dage" of the Danish TV series Borgen which focuses on the problems for the Danish prime-minister caused by the revelation of rendition flights landing at Thule.

N977GA

N596GA/N977GA

Another Gulfstream V, N596GA, manufacturers serial number 596, has also been mentioned in print as a possible transport for the CIA program of extraordinary rendition. Author Dave Willis wrote in Air Forces Monthly in May 2008 that this airframe, ordered in 1999 by the United States Air Force as a C-37A, serial 99-0405, was rolled out as N596GA but only briefly took up its military serial before reverting to the civil registration, issued on September 20, 2001, nine days after the 9-11 attacks. It was registered to National Aircraft Leasing of Greenville, New Castle County in Delaware, "and is believed to have been used by the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation Systems (JPATS), managed by the U.S. Marshals Service. JPATS is responsible for moving prisoners and non-US citizen criminals around and has its own fleet of aircraft, as well as frequently leasing others. N596GA is also said to have been used in the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition against terrorist subjects."

The author also mentions N379P, of Premiere Executive Transport Services, (later N8068V and N44982), and its alleged use in rendition missions.

As of at least June 24, 2011, this Gulfstream V, c/n 596, flies as N977GA, registered to the United States Department of Justice. On the aforementioned date, this aircraft was dispatched to California to retrieve fugitive New England crime boss "Jimmy" Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig, transporting them to Boston's Logan International Airport.

On October 5, 2012, together with a privately owned Dassault Falcon 900 (N331MC), the two planes carried terror suspects Abu Hamza, Babar Ahmad, Syed Ahsan, Khaled Al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary to the United States to face trial after losing their last-ditch attempt to stay in Britain.

N85VM

N85VM/N227SV is a white Gulfstream IV jet aircraft with the tail number "N85VM", reported in the media as possibly being used as a US Department of Defense or CIA prisoner transport. The plane, owned by one of the partners of the Boston Red Sox, was seen in Cairo on February 18, 2003, wearing the team's logos. Because of the timing of the aircraft's arrival and departure, it was linked by the media as possibly the aircraft used to render Abu Omar, who had been captured in Italy and taken to Cairo where he was imprisoned by the Egyptians.

Between June, 2002 and January 2005, the aircraft made 51 trips to Guantánamo Bay, as well as 82 visits to Dulles International Airport and Andrews Air Force Base. It also visited U.S. air bases at Ramstein and Rhein-Main in Germany, Afghanistan, Morocco, Dubai, Jordan, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic.

The aircraft was subsequently re-registered N227SV, with ownership being Assembly Point Aviation, which offers the aircraft for charter.

N987SA aka 'Cocaine One'

N987SA

On September 24, 2007, Gulfstream II, N987SA, c/n 172, crashed in the Yucatan, Mexico, carrying 6 tons of cocaine. At the time of the crash, the business jet was registered to Donna Blue Aircraft Inc, which had acquired it using money from the trust of the company Powell Aircraft. The two flight crew and only occupants were Omar Alfredo "el Piolo" Jácome del Valle and Edic Muñoz Sanchez.

The same aircraft, while registered under tail number N987SA to Air Rutter International, a California-based air-charter service, had been involved in extraordinary rendition to Guantanamo Bay. Logs show that the aircraft flew to Guantanamo Bay from Washington, D.C. twice and from Oxford, Connecticut once. It is likely that the purpose of these flights was to ferry CIA and Pentagon interrogators to Guantanamo to question detainees.

Subsequently, the aircraft changed hands multiple times in quick succession. On August 30, 2006, it was sold to Donna Blue Aircraft, owned by two Brazilians. On September 16, not even three weeks later, it was sold on to two Americans, Clyde O'Connor and Greg Smith. Over the next two days, money from the Americans trust company Powell Aircraft Title was used to acquire the aircraft for the drug trafficker Pedro Antonio "The Architect" Bermúdez Suaza.

The aircraft departed Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida, USA, on September 18 for Cancun, Mexico, then flew on to Colombia to pick up the load of cocaine from the FARC rebel group before returning to Mexico. Bribes paid to local civil aviation officials in Cancun were supposed to allow the aircraft and its cargo to avoid customs on arrival, but only minutes from landing, Bermúdez personally phoned co-pilot Muñoz and demanded the crew divert to Manzanillo, over 1500 km to the west, on Mexico's Pacific coast. The flight had been tracked by the Mexican Air Force since it entered Mexican airspace and a heavy military presence was waiting for them on the ground at Cancun. When the Gulfstream deviated from its approach to Cancun, Mexican Air Force aircraft which had been shadowing it moved in to intercept. Trapped, the Gulfstream crew put their aircraft into orbit over the town of Tixkobob near Mérida in northwestern Yucatan for almost two hours before finally crash-landing in the jungle. Soldiers reached the crash site the next day, recovered 132 bags containing a total of 6.3 tons of cocaine from the wreckage and arrested the crew, who were injured and unable to flee.

N900SA - note the plaque next to the door

N900SA

A McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 aircraft with the former tail number N900SA (c/n 45775) was involved in drug smuggling and was caught with 5.5 tons of cocaine onboard after landing in Mexico on April 10, 2006. On April 13, 2006, the aircraft was deregistered and sold to an unknown customer in Venezuela. In December 2006, Mexican Newspaper Reforma reported the previously seized aircraft was being operated by the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) to transport prisoners with extradition charges to the USA under Daniel Cabeza de Vaca and was based in Mexico City as XC-LJZ.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendition_aircraft

Leszállás Majurón Dash 6-ossal

Leszállás egy Twin Otterrel a Majuro International 07-es pályájára..

Marshall Islands Airports

The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands is an island country located in the northern Pacific Ocean. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the population of 68,480 people spread out over 24 low-lying coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the south-east, and Nauru to the south. The most populous atoll is Majuro, which also acts as the capital.


Marshall Islands International Airport (MAJ/PKMJ)

Marshall Islands International Airport also known as Amata Kabua International Airport, is located in the western part of Rairok on the south side of Majuro Atoll, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The airport was built during World War II (1943) on Anenelibw and Lokojbar islets. It replaced Majuro Airfield, a coral-surfaced airstrip at Delap Island near the eastern end of Majuro Atoll that had been originally constructed by Japanese occupation forces in 1942.

Current airport facilities include a terminal building, Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) facility, Air Marshall Islands Hangar and fuel delivery system.

The 7,530 square foot terminal was built in 1975 and features a main lobby for both departing and arriving passengers where ticketing, security, shops, car rental and a restaurant are all located.

Between 2007 and 2009, airport improvement projects replaced the runway surfaces, rebuilt the apron to better handle aircraft and repaved and added markings to the runway. In 2007 the FAA add two new airport fire tenders to the existing 3 tender fleet as part of the airport improvement projects.

Airport Reference Code: D-III
Airport Coordinates: N07°03.90′ E171°16.32′
Critical design craft: Boeing 737-800
Runway: 7/25, 7,897ft

Airlines and destinations

It is served by international carrier United Airlines, regional carrier Our Airlines and Air Marshall Islands, our local commuter airlines. Cargo is received from United Airlines as well as Asia Pacific Airlines, a cargo carrier. General aviation and private jets occasionally bring passengers to MAJ.

Air Marshall Islands: Airok, Aur, South Tarawa, Ebon, Enejit, Jaluit, Jeh, Kaben, Kili, Kwajalein, Majkin, Maloelap, Mejit, Mili, Namdrik, Utirik, Wotje
Our Airline: Brisbane, Nauru, Nadi, Tarawa
United Airlines: Chuuk, Guam, Honolulu, Kosrae, Kwajalein, Pohnpei

Kwajalein International Airport (KWA/PKWA)

Bucholz Army Airfield or often known as Kwajalain International Airport is a United States Army airfield located on Kwajalein Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. Its position is ideal for refueling during trans-Pacific flights, and the airport is available to civilians through Air Marshall Islands and United Airlines.

Since the entire Kwajalein Island is a military base, non-military passengers on commercial flights are transported to and from the neighboring island of Ebeye, the civilian population center of Kwajalein Atoll.

History

Bucholz Army Airfield was initially built by the Japanese in 1943 as part of a large naval base. It came under heavy air attacks in late 1943 to neutralize the island. The atoll was assaulted by American forces on 31 January 1944. After the seizure from the Japanese, Kwajalein was developed into a major American base and staging area for further campaigns in the advance on the Japanese homeland.

After World War II, the United States used Kwajalein as a main command center and preparation base for Operation Crossroads and an extensive series of nuclear tests (comprising a total of 67 blasts) at the Marshalls' atolls of Bikini and Enewetak. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, Bucholz became part of the Atomic Energy Commission Pacific Testing Area.

Although the Marshall Islands was officially granted independence from the United States, and became an independent republic in 1986, Kwajalein atoll is still used by the United States for missile testing and various other operations. Although this military history has deeply influenced the lives of the Marshall Islanders who have lived in the atoll through the war to the present, the military history of Kwajalein has made tourism almost non-existent and has kept the environment in relatively pristine condition. American civilians and their families who reside at the military installations in Kwajalein are able to enjoy this environment with few restrictions.

As of 2009, Bucholz Army Airfield is still operated by the United States Army. All civil and military operations require 24 hours' prior permission.

Airlines and destinations

Air Marshall Islands: Airok, Bikini, Elenak, Enewetak, Lae, Likiep, Majkin, Majuro, Woja, Wotho

United Airlines: Chuuk, Guam, Honolulu, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Majuro

Outer Airfields

The Marshall islands has a total of 29 outer island airstrips. These 29 outer airstrips are classed commercial (non-primary) and Air Marshall Islands (AMI) operates commuter service to them.

Airok Airfield

Location: Ailinglaplap, RMI
Runway Length: 3,082 feet
Runway Width: 120 feet
Airport Identifier: AIC
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 146 miles
Land Area: 1.08 sq. mile


Ailuk Airfield

Location: Ailuk, RMI
Runway Length: 2150 feet
Runway Width: 150 feet
Airport Identifier: AIM
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 228



Arno Airfield (closed)

Location: Ine, RMI
Runway Length:
Runway Width:
Airport Identifier: IMI
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft:
Distance From Majuro: 15



Arno Airfield (closed)

Location: Tinak, RMI
Runway Length: 3500 feet
Runway Width: 150 feet
Airport Identifier: TIC
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft:
Distance From Majuro: 15



Bikini Airfield

Location: Bikini, RMI
Runway Length: 3650 feet
Runway Width: 200 feet
Airport Identifier: BII
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228, Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 436



Ebon Airfield

Location: Ebon, RMI
Runway Length: 2950 feet
Runway Width: 100 feet
Airport Identifier: EBO
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228, Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 211



Enewetak Airfield

Location: Enewetak, RMI
Runway Length: 7000 feet
Runway Width: 200 feet
Airport Identifier: ENT
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228, Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 668



Jabat Airfield

Location: Jabat, RMI
Runway Length: 2050 feet
Runway Width: 100 feet
Airport Identifier: JAT
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft:
Distance From Majuro: 142



Jaluit Airfield

Location: Jabwor, RMI
Runway Length: 4,060 feet
Runway Width: 300 feet
Airport Identifier: UIT
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 138.5miles
Land Area: 4.38 sq. mile


Jeh Airfield

Location: Ailinglaplap, RMI
Runway Length: 4,000 feet
Runway Width: 30 feet
Airport Identifier: JEJ
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 141 miles
Land Area: 1.08 sq. mile


Kili Airfield

Location: Kili, RMI
Runway Length: 4,150 feet
Runway Width: 150 feet
Airport Identifier: KIO
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 154 miles
Land Area: .36 sq. mile


Kwajalein Airfield

Location: Elenak, RMI
Runway Length: 3200 feet
Runway Width: 300 feet
Airport Identifier: EAL
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 262



Lae Airfield

Location: Lae, RMI
Runway Length: 1950 feet
Runway Width: 145 feet
Airport Identifier: LML
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 319



Likiep Airfield

Location: Likiep, RMI
Runway Length: 2,800 feet
Runway Width: 130 feet
Airport Identifier: LIK
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 202 miles
Land Area: 3.96 sq. mile


Majkin Airfield

Location: Namu, RMI
Runway Length: 3,500 feet
Runway Width: 170 feet
Airport Identifier: MJE
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 512 miles
Land Area: 6.42 sq. mile


Maloelap Airfield

Location: Taroa, RMI
Runway Length: 3500 feet
Runway Width: 150 feet
Airport Identifier: MAV
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 113

 
Maloelap Airfield

Location: Kaben, RMI
Runway Length: 2650 feet
Runway Width: 200 feet
Airport Identifier: KBT
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 114



Mejit Airfield

Location: Mejit, RMI
Runway Length: 2600 feet
Runway Width: 150 feet
Airport Identifier: MJB
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 194



Mili Airfield

Location: Enajet, RMI
Runway Length: 3000 feet
Runway Width: 300 feet
Airport Identifier: EJT
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 92



Mili Airfield

Location: Mili, RMI
Runway Length: 2850 feet
Runway Width: 75 feet
Airport Identifier: MIJ
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 365



Namdrik Airfield

Location: Namdrik, RMI
Runway Length: 3100 feet
Runway Width: 110 feet
Airport Identifier: NDK
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 207



Namu Airfield (closed)

Location: Loen, RMI
Runway Length: 2600 feet
Runway Width:
Airport Identifier: MJE
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft:
Distance From Majuro: 512



Rongelap Airfield

Location: Rongelap, RMI
Runway Length: 4,100 feet
Runway Width: 150 feet
Airport Identifier: RGP
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 408 miles
Land Area: 3.07 sq. mile


Tabal Airfield

Location: Aur, RMI
Runway Length: 2550 feet
Runway Width: 130 feet
Airport Identifier: TBV
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft: Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 84



Ujae Airfield

Location: Ujae, RMI
Runway Length: 2500 feet
Runway Width: 100 feet
Airport Identifier: UJE
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft:Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 15



Utrik Airfield

Location: Utrik, RMI
Runway Length: 2600 feet
Runway Width: 135 feet
Airport Identifier: UTK
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft:Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 299



Woja Airfield

Location: Ailinglaplap, RMI
Runway Length: 4,150 feet
Runway Width: 150 feet
Airport Identifier: MJA
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 141 miles



Wotho Airfield

Location: Wotho, RMI
Runway Length: 2850 feet
Runway Width: 200 feet
Airport Identifier: WTO
Airport Reference Code:
Design Aircraft:Dornier 228
Distance From Majuro: 363



Wotje Airfield

Location: Wotje, RMI
Runway Length: 3,366 feet
Runway Width: 200 feet
Airport Identifier: WTE
Airport Reference Code: B-II
Design Aircraft: Dash 8
Distance From Majuro: 174 miles
Land Area: 3.16 sq. mile


Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Islands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_the_Marshall_Islands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Islands_International_Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucholz_Army_Airfield
http://rmipa.com/airports/