Captain Germán Olano Moreno Air Base () is a Colombian military base assigned to the

Colombian Aerospace Force The Colombian Aerospace Force (FAC, ) is the air force of the Republic of Colombia. The Colombian Aerospace Force is one of the three institutions of the Military Forces of Colombia charged, according to the 1991 Constitution, with working to exe ...

(''Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana'' or FAC) Combat Air Command No. 1 (''Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 1'' or CACOM 1). The base is located in Palanquero, near Puerto Salgar, in the Cundinamarca department of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. It is named in honor of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Germán Olano Moreno.

Facilities

The air base resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has one

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

designated 18/36 with an

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

surface measuring .

History

Officially inaugurated August 27, 1933 by the president of the republic Enrique Olaya Herrera, as the national airport of La Dorada. In 1932, due to the conflict with

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, the idea to create a base in a central strategic location was gaining hold. Back then the Hacienda Palanquero was already in use as an airport by the Colombian-German airline

Scadta Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos (SCADTA; ), was the world's second airline, and the first airline in Latin America, operating from 1919 until World War II. After the war, SCADTA merged with Colombian regional carrier Colombian Air ...

since 1919.

Accidents and incidents

*On 31 December 2014, A Colombian Air Force IAI Kfir C10 combat aircraft from 111 Squadron of the 1st Combat Air Command (CACOM-1) crashed while undertaking a training mission over La Dorada in Caldas. The pilot ejected following a technical failure while on approach to the Palanquero airbase in Puerto Salgar, Cundinamarca. *On 18 February 2009, Basler BT-67 FAC 1670 of the Colombian Air Force crashed near the base on a local training flight. All five crew were killed. *On 15 May 2009, FAC 3031

Dassault Mirage 5 The Dassault Mirage 5 is a French supersonic attack aircraft/fighter-bomber designed by Dassault Aviation during the 1960s and manufactured in France and other countries. It was derived from Dassault's popular Mirage III fighter and spawned sev ...

of the Colombian Air Force crashed above the 36 heading after a failed take-off. The pilot made the emergency procedures and ejected, leaving unharmed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Captain German Olano Moreno Air Base Airports in Colombia Colombian Air Force bases Buildings and structures in Cundinamarca Department 1933 establishments in Colombia Military airbases established in 1933

Facilities

History

Accidents and incidents

See also

References