Burevestnik Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Burevestnik
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type = Military
owner =
operator = Russian Air Force
city-served =
location = Burevestnik
elevation-f = 79
elevation-m = 24
coordinates = Coord|44|55|12|N|147|37|18|E|type:airport|display=inline,title
website =
metric-elev =
metric-rwy =
r1-number = 14/32
r1-length-f = 7808
r1-length-m = 2380
r1-surface = Concrete
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Burevestnik (also Iturup) is a military air base on Iturup Island, Russia, establishing the nation's presence on the disputed Kuril Islands with the largest airfield in the region. It is also the former Soviet Union's most remote interceptor base, home of 387 IAP (387th Interceptor Aviation Regiment). During the 1970s it flew MiG-21bis and upgraded to MiG-23 jets in 1983 [cite book | author = Central Intelligence Agency | title = Soviet Military Forces in the Far East: National Intelligence Estimate 11-14/40-81, TOP SECRET, declassified 1999 | publisher = Central Intelligence Agency | year = 1985 ] . Burevestnik's communications and logistics were tied to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and supplies were flown in weekly on An-12 aircraft.

Burevestnik's close proximity to Japan's highly populated Hokkaidō Island, by only 190 km, and to major aviation corridors kept the base in a state of constant alert. In 1968, an American Douglas DC-8 was forced to land here after straying off course in the Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253 incident. In April 1983, Burevestnik's MiG-21s were alerted due to a close approach of American F-14 aircraft but did not take off due to bad weather.Fact|date=January 2008

As of 2008, a Digital Globe high resolution satellite image accessible through Google Earth showed no evidence of interceptor or other fixed-wing aircraft on the base, other than one non-swept wing transport aircraft occupying the otherwise empty aircraft parking areas. The images also show an old parallel runway about 1 km northeast of the main concrete runway, measuring approximately 1200 m long and 70 m wide. [cite web |url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=44.92,147.621667&ie=UTF8&ll=44.919993,147.62166&spn=0.013112,0.033817&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1 |title= +44° 55' 12", +147° 37' 18"|accessdate=2008-01-12 |format= image|work=Google Earth|author=Digital Globe]

Airports and destinations

* SAT Airlines (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) ru icon Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Air Traffic Management Corporation", "Summer Air Traffic Schedule 25.03.2007 - 27.10.2007 (Airports - Russian domestic)", 29 May 2007, p. 7]

References