Captain Luis Francisco Gómez Niño Air Base ( es, Base Aérea Capitán Luis Francisco Gómez Niño , also known as Apiay Air Base (''Base Aérea de Apiay''), is a

Colombian military The Military Forces of Colombia ( es, Fuerzas Militares de Colombia, links=no) are the unified armed forces of the Republic of Colombia. They consist of the Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian Air Force. The National Police of C ...

base assigned to the Colombian Air Force (''Fuerza Aérea Colombiana'' or FAC) Combat Air Command No. 2 (''Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 2'' or CACOM 2). It also hosts members of the

Colombian Army The National Army of Colombia ( es, Ejército Nacional de Colombia) is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, ...

and Colombian Navy. The base is located in Apiay, near the city of Villavicencio, in the

Department of Meta Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also crossed by the Meta River, is covered by a grassland plain known as ...

in central

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, by the steps of the Andes mountain range and the plains of the Colombian

Llanos The Llanos (Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, sav ...

. The base also hosts members of the United States Military under a cooperation program under Plan Colombia intended to help the Colombian military with the eradication of illegal drug trade and the illegally armed groups in the Colombian armed conflict. Apiay has served as base for operations such as

Plan Patriota Plan Patriota (In English, ''Patriot Plan'') is military plan developed by the Government of Colombia with the financial support of the Government of the United States in an effort to uproot the guerrilla groups in Colombia, more specifically the Re ...

which included operations such as

Operation JM Operation JM ( es, Operación JM) was a military operation by the Military of Colombia Joint Task Force OMEGA intended to capture or kill the leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla (FARC), as part of the Plan Patriota. The ...

History

The current Combat Air Command No. 2 (''Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 2'') was established in 1933, in the jungle, with the name San José del Guaviare Air Base (''Base Aérea San José del Guaviare''). In December 1947 it moved to the village of Apiay, from Villavicencio, to become the Apiay National Airfield (''Aeródromo Nacional de Apiay''), an auxiliary to Madrid Air Base. In 1956 it was equipped with

AT-6 Texan The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces ...

and T-34 Mentor aircraft, to provide training to pilots recently graduated from the Military Aviation School (''Escuela Militar de Aviación''). In 1959 the unit was elevated to a main base with the assignment of B-26 aircraft moved from the Palanquero Air Base, changing its name to ''Comando Aéreo de Bombardeo''. In 1961 it received the name Luis F. Gómez Niño Air Base as a tribute to

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

Luis F. Gómez Niño (1896-1934), a Colombian military aviator. In 1972, the base receives its first jet aircraft,

T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

and T-37, brought from the Combat Air Command No.1, and changes its name to the present day name of Combat Air Command No.2. Today, the air base has responsibility for over 600.000 km²Reseña Histórica: Capitán Luis F. Gómez Niño
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Facilities

The air base resides at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 10/28 with an asphalt surface measuring .

Accidents and incidents

*On 8 September 1969, Douglas C-47 FAC-685 of SATENA crashed near Apiay Air Force Base killing all 32 people on board. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled passenger flight from

Monterrey Airport Monterrey International Airport, ( es, link=yes, Aeropuerto Internacional de Monterrey, ), ceremonial name General Mariano Escobedo International Airport, is an international airport located in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico. Together with Del No ...

to Apiay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Luis F. Gomez Nino Air Base 1933 establishments in Colombia Airports in Colombia Colombian Air Force Buildings and structures in Meta Department Military installations of Colombia Military airbases established in 1933