Shamshernagar Airport

Shamshernagar Airport
IATA: ZHM – ICAO: VGSH
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator CAAB
Serves Moulvibazar
Location Bangladesh
Elevation AMSL 58 ft / 18 m
Coordinates 24°23′53.7″N 91°55′1.0″E / 24.398250°N 91.916944°E / 24.398250; 91.916944 (Shamshernagar Airport (Shamshernagar))Coordinates: 24°23′53.7″N 91°55′1.0″E / 24.398250°N 91.916944°E / 24.398250; 91.916944 (Shamshernagar Airport (Shamshernagar))
Map
VGSH

Location of Shamshernagar Airport in Bangladesh

Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
17/35 5,200 1,585 Concrete
Source: Landings.com[1][2]

Shamshernagar Airport (IATA: ZHM, ICAO: VGSH) is a public use airport 17 kilometres (11 mi) southeast of Moulvibazar, Bangladesh. It is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB). Due to the short length of the runway it is restricted to STOL aircraft. As of July 2015, no scheduled passenger flights serve the airport, but civil air operations are allowed with prior approval.[3][4]

The U.S. 61st Air Service Group was based at Shamshernagar in the final months of World War II.[5]

On 31 December 1970, a Fokker F-27 Friendship 200 of Pakistan International Airlines on approach to Shamshernagar crash-landed short of the runway, turned over to the right, and burned. Seven of the 31 passengers on board died.[6]

According to East Pakistan Air Operations, 1971, during the Bangladesh Liberation War, Shamshernagar was the base of the first fighting formation of what would become the Bangladesh Air Force: a DC-3 Dakota, a DHC-3 Otter, and an Alouette III helicopter together known as Kilo Force.

According to CAAB, currently airlines do not serve Shamshernagar because demand is too low for a route to be commercially viable without smaller aircraft than those the airlines operate. The Independent reported a senior CAAB official as saying, "If the airlines are not interested in using our airports, we can't force them to." The same official said a government subsidy could convince airlines to use Shamshernagar. As it is now, airport staff are paid without having to work.[7]


See also

References

  1. ↑ Airport record for Shamshernagar Airport at Landings.com. Retrieved 2013-08-08
  2. ↑ Google (2013-08-08). "location of Shamshernagar Airport" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 2013-08-08.
  3. ↑ "VGSH AD 2-1" (PDF). Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh. 3 June 2010. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  4. ↑ "Airports in Bangladesh". Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  5. ↑ U.S. Air Force Historical Division (1953). Craven, Wesley Frank; Care, James Lea, eds. The Army Air Forces In World War II. The University of Chicago Press. p. 181. A photo of the unit with the C-47 Regina the Queen at the base in August 1945 can be found here.
  6. ↑ "Aircraft accident Fokker F-27 Friendship 200 AP-AUV Shamshernagar Airport (ZHM)". Aviation Safety Network.
  7. ↑ Rahman, SM Mizanur (18 August 2014). "Domestic airports lie unused". The Independent. Dhaka.


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