The FAA is seeking aviation industry input as it ponders the fate of a remote Pacific Island airstrip used in ETOPS flight planning.
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The FAA has extended the deadline for comments from the aviation industry—as well as federal, state, tribal, and local agencies—regarding the importance of Midway Atoll Airport/Henderson Field (PMDY) for transpacific aviation operations until September 22.
Midway Island is best known for being the site of what historians describe as the turning point in the Pacific Theater in World War II, when the U.S. Navy won a major tactical aircraft carrier duel against the Japanese Imperial fleet in 1942. The island remained under U.S. Navy control until the mid-1990s, when it was designated as a National Wildlife Refuge and turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The remote island's infrastructure includes an ETOPS (extended-range twin-engine operations performance standards) runway—an emergency landing strip for aircraft transiting the Pacific. PMDY is unique as a Part 139 airport that is owned and operated by a department of the U.S. government, is not a joint-use airport, and serves a specific need in the global aviation system.
According to the FAA, PMDY’s infrastructure is deteriorating and will require significant financial investments and rehabilitation within the next three to five years to maintain its operational capability and compliance with airport certification requirements and ETOPS requirements. As a result, the FAA is attempting to understand the potential impacts if PMDY were no longer available as an ETOPS alternate airport.
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Curt Epstein
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FAA Ponders Fate of Remote Pacific Island Airfield
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The FAA has extended the deadline for comments from the aviation industry—as well as federal, state, tribal, and local agencies—regarding the importance of Midway Atoll Airport/Henderson Field (PMDY) for trans-Pacific Ocean aviation operations.
Midway Island is best known for being the site of what historians describe as the turning point in the Pacific Theater in World War II, when the U.S. Navy won a major tactical aircraft carrier duel against the Japanese Imperial fleet in 1942. The island remained under U.S. Navy control until the mid-1990s, when it was designated as a National Wildlife Refuge.
The remote island's infrastructure includes an ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards) runway, which can serve as an emergency landing strip for aircraft transiting the Pacific. PMDY is unique as a Part 139 certificated airport that is owned and operated by a department of the U.S. government, is not a joint-use airport, and serves a specific need in the global aviation system.
According to the FAA, PMDY’s infrastructure is deteriorating and will require significant financial investments and rehabilitation within the next three to five years to maintain its operational capability and compliance with airport certification requirements and ETOPS requirements. The FAA is attempting to understand the potential impacts if PMDY were no longer available as an ETOPS alternate airport.