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Mitiga, Tripoli Airport
Airport Directory » Libyan Arab Jamahiriya » Mitiga » Mitiga, Tripoli AirportAirport information for Mitiga, Tripoli AirportCountry: Libyan Arab JamahiriyaLocation: Mitiga Coordinates: 32.53.00N / 013.16.00E IATA Code: MJI Timezone: GMT +2 Direct flights form Mitiga, Tripoli Airport Direct flights to Mitiga, Tripoli Airport Find connecting flights to Mitiga, Tripoli Airport Find connecting flights from Mitiga, Tripoli Airport |
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Mitiga International AirportLocation of Mitiga International Airport
Mitiga International Airport (IATA: MJI, ICAO: HLLM) is an airport in Libya, turn up approximately 7 statute land mile (11 kilometre) east of Tripoli.
The civilian airport was constituted in 1995. Domestic voyages to Benghazi and Musrata are winged, as good as international service to Istanbul, Turkey and Aleppo, Syria.
History
Prior to June 1970, the United States Air Force (USAF) used the installation, then known as Wheelus Air Base.
Subsequently the installation was known as Okba Ben Nafi Air Base, a Libyan People's Air Force (LPAF) installment. During the Cold War, aircraft and force of the Soviet Air Force took abode at Okba Ben Nafi Air Base.
The ground housed the LPAF's home base and a big contribution of its major grooming installations. LPAF Soviet-made MiG-17/19/25 scrapper and Tu-22 bombers were ground at Okba Ben Nafi Air Base. The Mig-25s were the 1st sold to an air pressure other than that of the Soviet Union itself.
In 1986, the ground was a primary target area of Operation Eldorado Canyon (see beneath), a United States retalliatory strike against Libya for Libyan missile assails on U.S. aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea and Libyan participation in averred terrorist assails on U.S. military man in Europe.
Origins
Wheelus Air Base was originally constructed by the Italian Air Force in 1923 and known as Mellaha Air Base.
Mellaha was used by the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of North Africa, with the Germans using it for short bush recon units, as good as coastal and naval recon units. Special condition recon units also be at Mehalla. The independent Luftwaffe unit was the second staffel of the Aufklärungsgruppe (H) 14 or 2.(H)/14.
The squadron was fit out with 12 single-engined Henschel Hs 126, an aircraft with 2-man crews, which is able to cover approx 710 kilometre, with a maximal velocity of 360 kilometres per hour. Three involvement aircraft in the characteristic of Fieseler Fi 156 Storch and a Junkers Ju 52 for transport of adult male and equipage.
It was captured by the British eighth Army in January 1943.
World War II
The US Army Air Force set about using Mellaha as a ground in January 1943. It was used by the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the twelfth Air Force for B-24 bomb missionary station into Italy and southern Germany.
In addition, Mellaha Field was used as by Air Transport Command. It operated as a way station en-route to Benina Airport near Benghazi or to Tunis Airport, Tunisia on the North African Cairo-Dakar transport path for load, transiting aircraft and force.
On 15 April 1945 Mellaha AAF was taken over by USAAF’s Air Training Command. It was renamed Wheelus Army Air Field (AAF) on 17 May 1945 in honour of USAAF Lt Richard Wheelus who had pop off earlier that yr in a airplane crash in Iran.
Wheelus AAF was demobilized on 15 May 1947, then reactivated as Wheelus Air Base ( Wheelus AB) on one June 1948 and reassigned to the USAF Military Air Transport Service (MATS). It's host unit under MATS was the 1603d Air Transport Wing.
With the coronate of His Majesty King of Libya Mohammed Idris Al-Sanusi I in 1951, United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE)-based fighter-bomber units also set about using Wheelus AB and its nearby El Watia Gunnery Range for gunnery and bombing grooming. A further understanding between the United States and Libya, signed in 1954, allowed the U.S. the use of Wheelus and its gunnery bush until December 1971.
"Lady Be Good"
On nine November 1958, British geologists winging over the Libyan Desert spied an aircraft resting on the sand dune about 400 statute land mile (640 kilometre) southward of Benghazi, Libya. A ground political party hit the location in March 1959 and find out the airplane to be the Lady Be Good, a B-24D Liberator of the USAAF's 376th Bomb Group (AAF Serial No. 41-24301).
The USAAF bomber had go away after a four April 1943 high-altitude bombing assail by 25 Liberators from an AAF ground at Sulûq (near Benghazi) against the seaport installations at Naples, Italy.
All aeroplanes but 1 returned to Allied district that night--the 1 losing was the Lady Be Good.
Evidence at the location pointed that the Lady Be Good crew had get lost in the dark on the return from Naples and misidentified the nighttime bush for the Mediterranean Sea. The air crew had passed over Sulûq south into the bush. With the B-24's fuel furnish use up, the 9 adult male aboard had bail out and go away while trying to walk north to civilisation.
Intensive hunting were made for hints as to the destiny of the crew to no avail. In 1960, the stays of 8 flyers were constitute, 1 near the airplane and the other 7 far to the northward. The organic structure of the ninth sailor was ne'er constitute. Five had trekked 78 land mile (125 kilometre) before expiring, and 1 had travel an astounding 109 land mile (175 kilometre). In addition, they had dwell 8 solar days instead than only the 2 anticipated of adult male in the bush with small or no water.
Numerous divisions from the Lady Be Good were returned to the U.S. for proficient survey. Also, some of the divisions were set up in other aeroplanes, aircraft which then see unexpected troubles.
A C-54 in which several autosync senders were installed had propellor problem and made a safe districting only by throwing load overboard. A C-47 in which a radio set was set up chucked in the Mediterranean, and a U.S. Army U-6 "Otter" plane in which a Lady Be Good sit armrest was set up crashed in the Gulf of Sidra with ten adult male aboard.
No follow of the U-6's riders and crew was of all time constitute of anybody of them; 1 of the few pieces rinsed ashore was the armrest of the Lady Be Good.
In 1960, fellow member of the 7272nd ABW donated monetary funds for the project and construct of a memorial window to the Lady Be Good and its crew in the Wheelus AB ground chapel.
Cold War use By USAF
Wheelus was 1st used by the USAAF as a bomber ground in 1943. It was renamed Wheelus Air Base in 1945, and stay in use by the United States until 1970.
With its 4,600 Americans, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya one time named it "a Little America...on the light shores of the Mediterranean," although temperatures at the ground often made 110 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (43 to 50 degrees Celsius).
Military Air Transport Service Use
The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) touch off the 1603rd Air Transport Wing at Wheelus on one June 1948. The 1603rd winged C-47 and C-54s to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus, and functioned the ground transport control centre until 1952. The 58th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (58 ARRS) functioned out of Wheelus until 1970 when they were relocated to the 67th ARRSQ in the UK. The 58 ARRS winged 3 HH-3E Jolly Green Giant eggbeaters, and 3 HC-130 refueling tank ship.
MATS aircraft and force from Wheelus take part in Operation Hajji Baba in 1952. Also in 1952 the MATS 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing was transferred to Wheelus from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The Wing (after Group) back up special functioning in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Southwest Asia until being demobilized in 1956.
MATS pulled away and relocated to Rhein Main AB, Germany in January 1953. However, MATS and afterward Military Airlift Command (MAC) aircraft were frequent visitants at Wheelus and back up a little disengagement there until the ground's closing in 1970.
Strategic Air Command use
As the Cold War catch up with post-WW II international political relation, on 16 November 1950 USAF's Strategic Air Command (SAC) set about deploying B-50s, B-36s, B-47s and back up aircraft (KB-29, KB-50, and KC-97 tank ship) from US air ground to Wheelus. The ground got 1 of several SAC forward functioning places (FOLs) in North Africa, getting a vital link up in SAC conflict programmes for use as a bomber, tank ship refueling and recon-fighter ground.
Wheelus hosted SAC bomber deployments in 45-day rotational deployments, using Wheelus as a level area for be after strikes against the Soviet Union.
SAC's use of Wheelus elongated until 1970, when as division of the USAF withdrawal from the ground, its rotational deployments finished.
USAFE use
Wheelus AB was transferred from MATS to United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) on 16 October 1951, under USAFE's 7272nd Air Base Wing. The 7272nd was afterwards denominated the 7272nd Fighter Training Wing and got the host unit at Wheelus AB until the ground's closing on 11 June 1970.
431st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
The 431st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was set off when the 172nd Fighter Squadron of the Michigan Air National Guard was say to active agent responsibility in June 1953. The squadron was transferred from Selfridge AFB and deployed to Wheelus, where it was fit out with twenty-five F-86Fs, two T-33s, and 1 C-47. The squadron insignia graced each side of the heart fuselage, merely over the wing. The tail markings dwell of a red-and-white comet project on the vertical tail. A white lightning winkle graced the red component part of the comet's tail.
In January 1955 the F-86D get down to replace the F-86Fs, which were directed to NATO air pressures. The squadron's tail markings modified with the F-86Ds having 2 or 3 horzontal redness chevrons start out at the ground of the rudder, with the chevron point touching the vertical quint's leading border and angling towards the upper trailing border of the rudder. Inside the rearmost chevron was a solid blueness trilateral.
In September 1958, the 431st FIS travel to Zaragoza Air Base, Spain, and was reassigned from USAFE to SAC's 16th Air Force.
On one August 1956, the Headquarters of 17th Air Force go to Wheelus Air Base, Libya from Rabat, Morocco, where it rested until relocating to Ramstein AB, Germany on 15 November 1959.
Detachment 1, 20th Fighter-Bomber Wing
The 20th Fighter Bomber Wing, ground at RAF Wethersfield UK, constituted an operational disengagement at Wheelus AB, in February 1958. This disengagement oversee the USAFE Weapons Training Center for month-long squadron rotary motion by the Europe-based USAFE tactical scrapper wings.
This installation let USAFE units from Germany, such as the 36th and 49th TFWs in joint functioning with their F-84 "Thunderjet" and the 50th TFW with F-100 Super Sabres developed at Wheelus. In addition, the United Kingdom ground 20th and 48th TFWs with F-100Ds, and the 81st TFW developed in air-to-air and air-to-surface gunnery and bringing of conventional ordnance store and atomic "characteristics" at the weapon system bush approximately 10 naut mi (19 kilometre) further east of the air ground.
As the F-4 Phantom II replaced most USAFE scrapper in the 1960s, Phantom disengagement functioning got the predominant action at Wheelus. USAFE's use of Wheelus elongated until 1970, when as division of the USAF pull away from the ground, bush weapon system bush grooming finished.
USAF withdrawal
Oil was see in Libya in 1959, and what had been 1 of the world's poorest states got highly wealthy. The United States savoured a mostly warm human relationship with Libya and engaged policies centered on involvements in functioning at Wheelus Air Base and the considerable U.S. oil involvements.
In September 1969 Libya's male monarch was bring down by Muammar al-Gaddafi who kick out the Americans and British. Gaddafi claimed that Wheelus, which he saw as a shadow of European colonialism, be closed and its installations turned over to the Libyan mortals.
While the U.S. wished to retain Wheelus Air Base, the strategical rate of the installation had worsened with the development of atomic missiles that had efficaciously replaced many bomber ground. Indeed, Wheelus had mainly assisted as a tactical scrapper grooming installation in the 1960s.
The Wheelus ground understanding had merely 2 more yr to run, and in December 1969, the U.S. held to give up the installation by June 1970.
Libyan/Soviet Use
After the USAF go forth, Wheelus got a Libyan People's Air Force installment and was renamed Okba Ben Nafi Air Base. OBN AB housed the LPAF's home base and a big contribution of its major grooming installations.
LPAF Soviet-made MiG-17/19/25 scrapper and Tu-22 bombers were ground at Okba Ben Nafi Air Base. Of the armed combat aircraft, the United States Department of State judged in 1983 that 50 pct stay in storage, including most of the MiG scrapper and Tu-22 bombers.
In addition, aircraft and force of the Soviet Air Force took abode at Okba Ben Nafi Air Base. With Soviet help, the Libyan Air Force was formed into 1 medium bomber squadron, 3 scrapper interceptor squadrons, 5 forward ground assail squadrons, 1 pacification squadron, 9 eggbeater squadrons, and 3 air defence brigades deploying SA-2, SA-3, and Crotale missiles
Operation El Dorado Canyon
At 0200 60 minutes on 16 April 1986 Okba Ben Nafi AB, various Libyan government constructions, and 3 of 30 Libyan terrorist grooming cantonments were bombarded by F-111Fs from USAFE's 48th Tactical Fighter Wing (48 TFW), winging non-stop from RAF Lakenheath, UK, to Libya in "Operation El Dorado Canyon".
The missionary post was in revenge for Libyan missile assails on U.S. aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea and Libyan participation in averred terrorist assails on U.S. military man in Europe.
Operation El Dorado Canyon included 18 48 TFW F-111F "Aardvark" fighter-bombers (Pave Tack-equipped), 5 EF-111A "Sparkvarks" from the 66th Electronic Combat Wing/42nd Electronic Combat Squadron at RAF Upper Heyford, UK, and carrier-based U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats and A-6E Intruders.
The 66 ECW Sparkvarks characteristic up with the assail pressure to furnish electronic defence during the assail. One 48 TFW F-111F (AF Serial No. 70-2389, callsign "Karma 52") was lost outbound from the assail to (presumptively) a SAM or AAA hit. The airplane pilot, Major Fernando Ribas-Dominici and the WSO, Capt Paul Lorence, were lost.
The 14-hour 5,800-mile (9,300 kilometre) (9,300 kilometre) round trip to Libya claimed numerous in-air refuelings (over 7 million lb of fuel), because lands closer to Libya—Spain, Italy, France, and Greece—had declined American aeroplanes permission to wing over or from ground in their lands.
Ironically, the 48 TFW had do for yr at Wheelus with F-100s and afterward at Zaragoza AB Spain with F-4D Phantoms and the F-111s for merely such a missionary post.
Post–Cold War
With the break of the Soviet Union and the riddance of armed forces help by the new Russian commonwealth, Okba Ben Nafi AB drastically cut back its armed forces missionary post. The last major bringing of Soviet aircraft was 15 Su-24 Fencers in March/April 1989.
Much of Libyan air ism looks currently to be of an ad hoc nature and undertake force from Yugoslavia, South Africa, Russia, North Korea and Pakistan furnish airplane piloting, upkeep and proficient services.
UN approves were bring up in early 1999 and Libya has speak to Russia approximately upgrades for its MiG-21s and MiG-25s while also showing an involvement in MiG-29s, MiG-31s and long-range SAMs. However, many of the transport and armed combat aircraft are in storage.
Original article.