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Cold Bay Airport

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Airport type
  
Public

Hub for
  
PenAir

15/33
  
10,180

Elevation
  
31 m

Serves
  
Cold Bay, Alaska

Elevation AMSL
  
101 ft / 31 m

Code
  
CDB

Phone
  
+1 907-532-5000

Cold Bay Airport

Owner
  
State of Alaska DOT&PF - Central Region

Address
  
1 Flying Tiger Way, Cold Bay, AK 99571, USA

Approaching cold bay airport


Cold Bay Airport (IATA: CDB, ICAO: PACD, FAA LID: CDB) is a state owned, public use airport located in Cold Bay, a city in the Aleutians East Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. First built as a United States Army Air Forces airfield during World War II, it is one of the main airports serving the Alaska Peninsula. Scheduled passenger service is available and air taxi operators fly in and out of the airport daily. Formerly, the airport operated as Thornbrough Air Force Base.

Contents

According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, the airport had 9,105 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 8,968 enplanements in 2009, and 9,261 in 2010. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a "non-primary commercial service" airport, meaning it has between 2,500 and 10,000 enplanements per year.

Cold Bay's main runway is the fifth-largest in Alaska and was built during World War II. Today, it is used for scheduled cargo flights by Alaska Central Express and is sometimes used as an emergency diversion airport for passenger flights crossing the Pacific Ocean.

A myth describes Cold Bay Airport as an alternate landing site for Space Shuttles, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has stated that it was never so designated, and it was not within the entry crossrange capability of Space Shuttles.

There is a National Weather Service (NWS) office (which sends up radiosonde balloons twice a day) colocated with the FAA Flight Service Station at the airport. The NWS ranks Cold Bay as the cloudiest city in the United States.

History

The airport was constructed during World War II as Fort Randall Army Airfield, eventually becoming an Air Force Base during the Cold War.

Facilities and aircraft

Cold Bay Airport has two asphalt paved runways: 14/32 is 10,180 by 150 feet (3,174 x 46 m) and 8/26 is 6,235 by 150 feet (1,900 x 46 m). For the 12-month period ending January 1, 2011, the airport had 9,210 aircraft operations, an average of 25 per day: 63% air taxi, 29% scheduled commercial, 5% military, and 2% general aviation.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines offer scheduled passenger service at this airport:

Accidents and incidents

  • September 8, 1973 (1973-09-08): World Airways Flight 802, a Douglas DC-8 operating on a cargo flight for the Military Airlift Command, crashed into Mount Dutton, 16 miles (26 km) east of Cold Bay, while on instrument approach to the airport. All six people on board were killed.
  • June 8, 1983 (1983-06-08): The No. 4 propeller of Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8, a Lockheed L-188C Electra with 15 people on board, detached shortly after takeoff from the airport, causing damage which depressurized the airliner and jammed its flight controls and engine throttles. Unable to return to the airport because they needed a longer runway than Cold Bay could provide in order to land with plane′s throttles jammed, the crew managed to land the airliner at Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, without injury to anyone.
  • References

    Cold Bay Airport Wikipedia