The 31st Air Base ( pl, 31. Baza Lotnicza), commonly known as Poznań-Krzesiny Airport is a

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mi ...

base and military airport, located in Krzesiny, part of the Nowe Miasto district of

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

. The base was officially constituted on 31 December 2000, and since then has been the home base for the 3rd Tactical Squadron. It is the first base to host the recently acquired F-16 fighters.

History

In 1941, during its occupation of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

built an aircraft factory at Krzesiny (German: ''Luftwaffenfliegerhorst Kreising''), along with an airfield to service it. The factory, run by

Focke-Wulf Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG () was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the ...

, was a target for Allied bombers in the course of the war, on 29 May 1944 for

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forc ...

. On 22 January 1945 the airfield was captured by

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

and taken over by the Soviet Air Force, which in turn passed it to the Polish military in 1954, which has used it since, hosting various units under changing designations: *since 1954: one of squadrons of 11th Fighter Regiment (''11. Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego'') that was in this same year transformed to 62nd School-Training Fighter Regiment (''62. Pułk Szkolno-Treningowy Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego'') which was part of 3rd Air Defence Corps (''3. Korpus Obrony Powietrznej'') *in 1957 regiment was renamed to 62nd Fighter Regiment (''62. Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego'') which, in 1958, received name of "Insurgents of

Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) Greater Poland Uprising (also Wielkopolska Uprising or Great Poland Uprising) may refer to a number of armed rebellions in the region of Greater Poland: * Greater Poland Uprising (1794) * Greater Poland Uprising (1806) Greater Poland uprising ...

" (''Powstańców Wielkopolskich 1918/1919'') *on 16 January 1994 regiment was renamed to 3rd Fighter Regiment of Poznań (''3. Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego "Poznań"'') that consists two squadrons *in 1999 1st squadron was enlarged by part of personnel and aircraft of disbanded 17th Air Force Squadron (''17. Eskadra Lotnicza'') from Poznań-Ławica Airport The organisation as an air base was implemented on 31 December 2000 to conform with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

practices, separating the air base from the units which are based there. On this date 3rd Fighter Regiment was split into 31st Air Base (''31. Baza Lotnicza'') and 3rd Tactical Squadron (''3. Eskadra Lotnictwa Taktycznego''). On 1 April 2008 ''31st Air Base'' was again joined with 3rd Tactical Squadron and 6th Tactical Squadron to form single unit named 31st Tactical Air Base.

Confusion with Poznań–Ławica Airport

Poznań–Krzesiny Airport has been confused by pilots with Poznań–Ławica Airport, which also has a runway. The runways are at approximately the same orientation: Ławica's is 11/29 (true heading: 108/288) and Krzesiny's is 12/30 (true heading: 117.9/297.9). The two runways lie in a nearly straight line, with Krzesiny coming up first on approaches from the east, the ones used most often. On the other hand, the Krzesiny airbase lies southeast from the city centre, while Poznań–Ławica lies just west of it. Krzesiny had a second runway, but at an unknown date this second runway that crosses runway 12/30 was closed, as in satellite images it is marked with large white X marks. One notable incident involving confusion between Ławica and Krzesiny happened on August 15, 2006. What happened was that a

Sky Airlines Sky Airlines was an airline which operated chartered flights. It was based in Antalya, Turkey, operating on behalf of tour operators on short and medium haul routes into Turkey. History The company was established in 2000 and started operations ...

aircraft – a

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boein ...

that operated the flight SKY335 – mistook the runway at Krzesiny for the one being used in Ławica. The crew didn't realise their error until later, when they took off to reposition the jet to the main airport. According to Krzysztof Krawcewicz, a pilot and the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the Polish monthly '' Przegląd Lotniczy/Aviation Revue'', this was at least the seventh mistaken aircraft that landed at the Poznań–Krzesiny airfield in 2006 alone. He faults, among others, the "scandalous procedures which are in use by the

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

at Poznań–Ławica" and the lack of

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

use in controlling aircraft landing, which exists, but has been turned off by the Polish Air Traffic Agency (Agencja Ruchu Lotniczego).

References

External links

* * {{authority control Airports in Poland Polish Air Force bases Soviet Air Force bases Poland–Soviet Union relations Buildings and structures in Poznań Military installations of the Soviet Union in other countries