Fall River Municipal Airport
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Fall River Municipal Airport | |||
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IATA: FLR – ICAO: KFLR | |||
Summary | |||
Airport type | Closed | ||
Operator | Naragansett Aircraft | ||
Location | Fall River, Massachusetts | ||
Coordinates | |||
Runways | |||
Direction | Length | Surface | |
ft | m | ||
6/24 | 3,948 | 1,203 | Paved |
15/33 | 1,600 | 487 | Paved |
Source: www.airfields-freeman.com[1] |
Fall River Municipal Airport was an airport located in Fall River, Massachusetts, United States which was built between 1946 and 1951. The airport closed some time between 1996 and 1998. The FAA deemed that the airport was unsafe due to a large landfill adjacent to the airport, which resulted in a growth in seagull population, which disrupted airport operations. Its IATA code was FLR. It once offered scheduled air service on Northeast Airlines.
Correction: Northeast Airlines was often discussed as a possible service provider to Fall River but it never happened. There was one attempt to have the city served by Mohawk Airlines but that, too, did not succeed. The airport was built by The U.S. government as an "auxiliary" field associated with Quonset Naval Air Station and, at one time, was home to a small contingent of Massachusetts Air National Guard helicopters. From the early 1960s the city performed only minimal maintenance. Runway lighting was marginally kept working by volunteer pilots who used the facility. There were periodic attempts at revival but none achieved much success. In addition to the bird hazard from the landfill there were also numerous large apartment buildings constructed nearby. Lack of any serious security, including only rudimentary fencing, resulted in frequent vandalism to aircraft causing many owners to move to nearby New Bedford and Taunton (Massachusetts) airports.