Szczytno-Szymany International Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Szczytno-Szymany International Airport
nativename = Międzynarodowy Port Lotniczy
Szczytno-Szymany
nativename-a =
nativename-r =


image-width =
caption =
IATA = SZY
ICAO = EPSY
type = Private
owner =
operator = Porty Lotnicze „Mazury – Szczytno” Sp. z o.o.
city-served =
location = Szczytno
elevation-f = 463
elevation-m = 141
coordinates = Coord|53|28|55|N|20|56|16|E|type:airport|display=inline,title
website =
metric-elev =
metric-rwy =
r1-number = 09/20
r1-length-f = 6,562
r1-length-m = 2,000
r1-surface = Concrete
stat-year =
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stat1-data =
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stat2-data =
footnotes =

Szczytno-Szymany International Airport airport codes|SZY|EPSY is a currently inoperative [ [http://www.airport.szczytno.pl/ Official website - currently, a banner in the headline reads: "działalność lotniskowa czasowo zawieszona/aerodrome closed for air traffic"] last accessed 24 June 2007.] Polish regional airport located in the village Szymany, some 10 km from the center of the city of Szczytno in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in the North of Poland. It is the only airport in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. As of 2007 the airport does not have any year-round scheduled service,and in fact is not open for traffic. When active, it catered mostly to general aviation, charter flights and seasonally scheduled connections in the summer. It used to have scheduled passenger service to Warsaw.

Airlines and destinations

*none (For several years now, the airport has not had any scheduled passenger traffic, and presently, serves no traffic at all.)

Involvement in extraordinary renditions

The airport gained attention in the press in 2005, when it was alleged to be a so-called black site involved in the CIA's network of extraordinary renditions. Terrorist suspects were to be secretly held, and even tortured, in violation of Polish law, by the CIA. Flight records show that an airplane leased by the CIA flying from Kabul to Guantanamo Bay made a stop in Szymany. Officials from the airport have confirmed that some of these flights bypassed normal customs-clearing procedures, and that during the time of these landings, the airport regularly received visits by cars bearing markings associated with the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training school outside the nearby village of Stare Kiejkuty.

As recently as November, 2006, the European Parliament investigative commission led by Claudio Fava had been told, when asked for the flight logs of 11 specific flights observed to have transited through Szymany, that " [the records] have [not] been retained, have been faxed and destroyed, and finally said to have been saved in an unspecified place." [Brian Knowlton, "Report Rejects European Denial Of C.I.A. Prisons", "New York Times", November 29 2006.] The commission report also quotes Szymany officials as confirming six occasions in 2002 and 2003 when Gulfstream jets bearing civilian registration numbers had landed at the airport, bypassing customs clearance. Airport officials had been directly ordered not to approach the aircraft, and vehicles bearing military registration numbers affiliated with the nearby base at Stare Kiejkuty awaited the arrival of each aircraft.

"See: Secret CIA prisons"

See also

* List of airports in Poland

References

External links

* [http://www.airport.szczytno.pl/ Official website of the Szczytno-Szymany International Airport] pl icon en icon de icon
*WAD|EPSY
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.479669,20.937881&spn=0.049010,0.107632&t=k&hl=en Satellite photo via Google Maps]
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?placesearch=Szczytno%20-%20Szymany%20%28SZY%20%2F%20EPSY%29&distinct_entry=true Photos on airliners.net]