Colonel James Jabara Airport (ICAO: KAAO, FAA LID: AAO) is a public airport located nine miles (14 km) northeast of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States.[1] It is named in honor of World War II and Korean War flying ace James Jabara, an American of Lebanese descent who has the distinction of being the first American jet ace.
Colonel James Jabara Airport | |||||||||||
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| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Wichita Airport Authority | ||||||||||
| Location | Wichita, Kansas | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,421 ft / 433 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 37°44′51″N 097°13′16″W / 37.74750°N 97.22111°W | ||||||||||
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  KAAL/AAO Location of airport in Kansas  KAAL/AAO KAAL/AAO (the United States) | |||||||||||
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Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Colonel James Jabara Airport is assigned AAO by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA (which assigned AAO to Anaco Airport in Anaco, Venezuela).[2][3]
Facilities and aircraft
editColonel James Jabara Airport covers an area of 600 acres (243 ha) which contains one runway.
- Runway 18/36: 6,101 ft × 100 ft (1,860 m × 30 m), surface: concrete
For 12-month period ending August 13, 2019, the airport had 38,300 aircraft operations, an average of 104 per day: 97% general aviation and 3% air taxi. In November 2021, there were 113 aircraft based at this airport: 60 single-engine, 31 multi-engine, 20 jet aircraft, 1 helicopter and 1 military.[1]
LifeSave Transport, A private medevac company owned by Air Methods, is based out of this airport. They operate a fixed wing and ground operations out of their building.
Colonel James Jabara Airport used to have a dedicated helipad, but it was closed and now has an X painted over the helipad.
Incidents
editOn November 20, 2013, at approximately 9:30 pm CST, a Boeing 747-400 Dreamlifter (with registration N780BA and operated by Atlas Air) mistakenly landed at the Colonel James Jabara Airport, which was on the same heading as its destination, McConnell Air Force Base. After landing at McConnell, the plane was to taxi over to nearby Spirit AeroSystems, and pick up some fuselage parts for the assembly of Boeing 787 Dreamliners in Everett, Washington.[4][5][6] The plane successfully took off at 1:15 pm CST on November 21 and landed at nearby McConnell AFB.[7] The NTSB opened an investigation about the wrong landing.[8] The NTSB published the final report in September 2020. The NTSB determines that the probable causes of this incident is: "the flight crew's failure to properly identify the airport and runway of intended landing. Contributing to the incident was the flight crew's failure to follow company procedures for crosschecking navigational information and visual cues to verify the airport and runway of intended landing."[9]
Nearby airports
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Other airports in Wichita |
Other airports in metro Other airports in region |
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References
edit- ^ a b c FAA Airport Form 5010 for AAO PDF, effective November 4, 2021
- ^ Swartz, Karl L. "Great Circle Mapper: KAAO - Wichita, Kansas (Colonel James Jabara Airport)". Great Circle Mapper. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ Swartz, Karl L. "Great Circle Mapper: AAO / SVAN - Anaco, Venezuela". Great Circle Mapper. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ "Kansas: Plane left stranded after landing 'by mistake'". BBC News Online. 2013-11-21. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ Green, Jaime (2013-11-21). "Video about Dreamlifter Landing At Jabara". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on 2013-11-21. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ "Audio of Dreamlifter crew in contact with McConnell AFB". The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ Plumlee, Rick; McMillin, Molly (2013-11-21). "Wayward Dreamlifter captivates the Air Capital". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ "NTSB opens investigation into Dreamlifter's wrong landing". The Wichita Eagle. 2013-11-22. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ "Aviation Investigation Final Report". NTSB. September 22, 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-11-22. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
External links
edit- Resources for this airport:
- FAA airport information for AAO
- AirNav airport information for KAAO
- ASN accident history for AAO
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
- SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures