Henderson Field (Midway Atoll)
Public airport on Sand Island in Midway Atol / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Henderson Field (IATA: MDY, ICAO: PMDY) is a public airport located on Sand Island in Midway Atoll, an unincorporated territory of the United States. The airport is used as an emergency diversion point for ETOPS operations. It is one of three airfields named after Major Lofton R. Henderson (killed in the Battle of Midway during WWII), together with Henderson Field on Midway's Eastern Island, and Henderson Field in the Solomon Islands. The airfield now provides access to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
Henderson Field | |||||||||||
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
Owner | U.S. Dept. of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service | ||||||||||
Operator | American Airports Corp. (under sub-contract with Chugach Industries, Inc.) | ||||||||||
Serves | Midway Atoll | ||||||||||
Location | Sand Island, Midway Atoll | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 18 ft / 5 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 28°12′05″N 177°22′53″W | ||||||||||
Website | tba | ||||||||||
Maps | |||||||||||
Location on Sand Island. Former runways in gray. | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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The airfield operated until 1993 as Naval Air Facility Midway. Its construction was begun by Seabees of the 1st Naval Construction Battalion in July 1942 as a bomber strip.[2] After transition from the U.S. Navy to the Department of the Interior, the airport was subsidized by Boeing until 2004. Since 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has owned the airport, but subcontracted airport operations and maintenance, with financial assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Henderson Field has no control tower. From November to June, when albatross are typically present, flight arrivals and departures are limited to night-time.[3] (Midway Atoll NWR is one of the world's largest colonies of nesting albatross.)