Van Nuys Airport

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Van Nuys Airport


IATA: VNY - ICAO: KVNY
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Los Angeles World Airports
Serves		Van Nuys, California
Elevation AMSL		802 ft (244.4 m)
Coordinates		34°12′35″N, 118°29′24″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
16R/34L	8,001	2,439	Asphalt
16L/34R	4,011	1,223	Asphalt

Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY) is a public airport located in Van Nuys, California in the San Fernando Valley, within the Los Angeles city limits. No commercial airlines fly into this airport; it is used by private, chartered, and small commercial aircraft. It is owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports.

Van Nuys Airport is the world's busiest general aviation airport and the 22nd busiest airport in the world. With just two parallel runways, Van Nuys Airport handled 448,681 aircraft movements in 2004 (averaging over 1200 operations/day) and in 2006 handled nearly 1,400 operations daily. By comparison, Los Angeles International Airport (with 4 runways and exceptional amounts of commercial traffic) has roughly 1700 operations a day.

Hollywood celebrities, politicians, and business executives are known to use this airport because it offers them convenience and anonymity. Additionally, many movies and television shows have been filmed at the airport, including a scene showing the arrival of Major Strasser in Casablanca, an episode of the TV show Alias, and Season 5 of 24. The 1980s action-espionage series Airwolf used the Van Nuys Airport hangars regularly as the site of "Santini Air", the charter air service company owned and operated by Ernest Borgnine's character (Dominic Santini) in the series.

In 2005, a film documenting the history of Van Nuys Airport was released under the name One Six Right, named after the most popular runway at the airport.

The airport is also home to the Van Nuys FlyAway Bus service, which provides non-stop bus service from the airport to Los Angeles International Airport. This allows travelers to park their cars at Van Nuys and not have to deal with driving to LAX or parking fees at LAX.

Most news helicopters from the Los Angeles area are based at Van Nuys Airport.

1 Facilities
2 Incidents
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Facilities

Van Nuys Airport covers 725 acres and has two runways:

Runway 16R/34L: 8,001 x 150 ft. (2,439 x 46 m), Surface: Asphalt
Runway 16L/34R: 4,011 x 75 ft. (1,223 x 23 m), Surface: Asphalt

[edit] Incidents

This section documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

In 2001, a FOX 11 news helicopter, a secondary helicopter that was previously owned by KTLA, crashed at Van Nuys airport after experiencing problems while covering the Academy Awards. The crew was rescued by KCAL helicopter pilot Larry Welk and KCBS helicopter pilot Aaron Fitzgerald.

A Cessna 525 Citation CJ1 twin-engine jet departing for Long Beach Airport crashed a 1/2 mile north of the airport on January 12, 2007, killing two people on board the plane. Both of them were pilots, and one of them is reported to be Frank Katzer, the owner of Sun Quest Executive Air Charter, the company that operates the aircraft.^[1]