MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Stanley airport celebrates 25th anniversary

Falkland Islands are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Stanley's airport with a historic display in the Islands Museum.

Until the building of the airport a few miles from the capital of the Islands in the seventies, travelling to the Falklands was by sea with the main link to Montevideo, Uruguay.

This option was withdrawn in 1971 and lead to a formal communications agreement between the British and Argentine governments to operate an airlink between Stanley and Comodoro Rivadavia in Argentina.

Initially a Grumman HU-16B Albatross amphibious aircraft provided a service on a weekly basis. The ungainly monster would sometimes use Rocket Assisted Take-Off (RATO) packs to help it into the air.

The same political agreement also allowed the Argentines to build and operate a temporary airport at Hookers Point. Built from aluminium planking the runway came into service in November 1972. The Fokker F27 Friendships were introduced and operated from the runway until 1978 when high winds tore up large sections of the aluminium planking leaving the runway unusable.

In the meantime UK Company Johnson's Construction had been awarded a contract to build Stanley Airport and the Airport Road with the first drainage works beginning in 1974.

Many Islanders were involved with the building as subcontractors which proved to be quite a boost for the local workers earning the higher wages offered by the company. Additionally many of the workers learned operating and engineering skills that would be beneficial for future projects. When completed, the runway was 4,000 ft long and 150 ft wide.

Stanley Airport was officially opened on Tuesday May 1, 1979 by Sir Vivian Fuchs. The first official landing recorded was by Jim Kerr piloting Bill Luxton's Cessna 172 with Stephen Luxton and the late Terry Reive as passengers.

However some months before, local pilot Robin Pitaluga heard that an Argentine F27 was to make a trial landing on the new runway and promptly pre-empted the possibility with a landing in his own light aircraft, making a Falklands registered aircraft the first to touch down at the new airport.

On the evening of April 1, 1982 it became known that an Argentine invasion force was approaching the Falklands. The runway was barricaded with heavy machinery and vehicles in an attempt to stop aircraft landing.

Under Argentine occupation the airport suffered extensive bombing damage as did FIGAS aircraft and private aircraft owned by Robin Pitaluga, Bill Luxton and Rex Hunt.

From June 1982 to May 1986 the Royal Air Force operated from the airport which became known as RAF Stanley. RAF Stanley ceased to exist on April 30, 1986 when the military moved to the purpose built RAF Mount Pleasant.

Temporary aluminium planking was removed to reveal the original 4,000 ft runway and by April 1987 Stanley Airport was nearly back to its pre-war state.

For several years in the early 1990's the Chilean airline Aerovias DAP flew a fortnightly service between Stanley and Punta Arenas using Twin Otter and King Air Beechcraft. These flights were replaced with the Lan Chile service flying into Mount Pleasant.

The display in the Museum includes facts and figures on Stanley's airport plus an extensive display of photos from the building of the airport by Johnson Construction and the devastation created by the 1982 Argentine occupation. The display can be seen until June 17.

Source: Penguin News.