Kenitra Air Base

Kenitra Air Base [كنيترا] مطار Third Royal Air Force Base
IATA: NNA – ICAO: GMMY Kenitra Airport Location of air base in Morocco
Summary
Airport type		Military
Operator		Royal Moroccan Army and Navy
Location		Kenitra, Morocco
Elevation AMSL		16 ft / 5 m
Coordinates		34°17′56″N 006°35′45″W / 34.29889°N 6.59583°W / 34.29889; -6.59583
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
7/25	2,437	7,995	Concrete
03/21	1,839	6,035	Asphalt
Source: DAFIF[1][2]

Kenitra Air Base (Arabic: [كنيترا] مطار) (IATA: NNA, ICAO: GMMY) is a military airport in Kenitra,^[1] the capital city of the Gharb-Chrarda-Béni Hssen region in Morocco. It is also known as the Third Royal Air Force Base,^[1] operated by the Royal Moroccan Air Force.

History

Kenitra Air Base was previously known as Craw Field, named for Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Demas T. Craw, USAAF, who was killed while attempting to deliver a message from American General Lucian Truscott to the Vichy French Commander at Port Lyautey requesting that the French surrender. Although imprisoned, Craw's interpreter, Major Pierpont Hamilton, a descendant of Alexander Hamilton, negotiated the French surrender during Operation Torch and the airport was eventually secured for the Allied forces. Pierpont Hamilton also received the Medal of Honor for his actions.

The air base at Port Lyautey served as a staging area for many Allied operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) during WWII. The United States Navy (USN) Fleet Air Wing 15 and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) 480th Antisubmarine Group were based there with specialized aircraft including PBY Catalinas, B-24 Liberators, and Goodyear-built K-ships (blimps) used to search for German U-Boats in the Atlantic Ocean and especially in the shallow waters of the Straits of Gibraltar where radar and magnetic anomaly detection were viable.

Craw Field was the final destination of the six K-ships of USN Blimp Squadron ZP-14 (Blimpron 14, the Africa Squadron) that made the first transatlantic crossing of non-rigid airships in 1944.^[3][4]

Following World War II, the airfield was expanded to a major US Naval Air Station in 1951 and renamed NAS Port Lyautey. In this capacity, it primarily supported land-based US naval reconnaissance aircraft monitoring Soviet naval operations in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Aircraft operating from NAS Port Lyautey included the P4M Mercator in the 1950s, the P-2 Neptune in the 1950s and 1960s, and the P-3 Orion, EP-3 Aries and EA-3 Skywarrior in the 1960s and 1970s until the installation's closure as a USN facility and transfer to the Royal Moroccan Air Force in 1977.^[5]

Facilities

The airport resides at an elevation of 16 feet (5 m) above mean sea level. It has two runways: 07/25 with a concrete surface measuring 2,437 by 46 metres (7,995 × 151 ft) and 03/21 with an asphalt surface measuring 1,839 by 46 metres (6,033 × 151 ft).^[1]

See also

• Naval Air Station Port Lyautey

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Airport information for GMMY from DAFIF (effective October 2006)
2. ^ Airport information for NNA at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective Oct. 2006).
3. ^ Blimp Squadron 14
4. ^ Kaiser, Don, K-Ships Across the Atlantic, Naval Aviation News, Vol. 93(2), 2011.
5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Port_Lyautey

External links

• Craw Field, Port Lyautey, French Morocco during WWII
• Accident history for NNA at Aviation Safety Network