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

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force () is the aerial warfare Military branch, 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 26,000 military personnel an ...

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

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

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

History

In 1941, during its occupation of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

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

. On 22 January 1945 the airfield was captured by

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and taken over by the

Red Army Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

. In mid-1945 the 113th Bomber Aviation Division of the 6th Bomber Aviation Corps of the

16th Air Army The 16th Red Banner Air Army () was the most important formation of the Special Purpose Command. Initially formed during the Second World War as a part of the Soviet Air Force, it was from its 2002 reformation to its 2009 disbandment the tactical ...

was reported here. In 1954 the Soviets transferred the base to the Communist Polish People's Army. Since then the base has hosted 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 the 3rd Air Defence Corps (Poland). *in 1957 the regiment was renamed to the 62nd Fighter Regiment (''62. Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego'') which, in 1958, received name of "Insurgents of Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919)" (''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 ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

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

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

s 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. A Sky Airlines

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a twinjet, twin-engine narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third-generation derivative of the Boeing 737, it ha ...

operating flight SKY335 mistook the runway at Krzesiny for the one being used at 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 editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the Polish monthly '' Przegląd Lotniczy/Aviation Revue'', this was at least the seventh aircraft that mistakenly landed at Poznań–Krzesiny in 2006 alone. He blamed, amongst other things, 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 air ...

at Poznań–Ławica" and the lack of

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

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

References

External links

* {{authority control Airports in Poland Polish Air Force bases Poland–Soviet Union relations Buildings and structures in Poznań Former Soviet military air bases in Poland