Destin Executive Airport , also known as Coleman Kelly Field, is a public use airport owned by and located in

Okaloosa County, Florida Okaloosa County is located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Alabama state line. As of the 2020 census, the population was 211,668. Its county seat is Crestview. Okaloosa County ...

. The airport is one

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

(2 km) east of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Destin, Florida Destin is a city located in Okaloosa County, Florida. It is a principal city of the Crestview–Fort Walton Beach–Destin, Florida, metropolitan area. Located on Florida's Emerald Coast, Destin is known for its white beaches and emerald green ...

. It is included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2021–2025, which categorized it as a

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

facility. Although many U.S. airports use the same three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

and

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

, this airport is assigned DTS by the FAA and DSI by the IATA. The airport's

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

identifier is KDTS. Due to its close proximity to

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...

and the high levels of military flight activity, all flights to or from Destin Executive Airport must adhere to "special air traffic rules" and obtain ATC clearance before entering the Eglin/Valparaiso terminal area. The Destin Executive Airport is an independent general flight office possessed and worked by Okaloosa Area, and is not reliant on ad valorem charges.

History

The first landing at the airport occurred on October 13, 1961. Lucius Burch of Memphis, Tennessee, and two passengers came for a weekend of fishing. Formerly, he had to land in Crestview, Florida, which Burch described as a "terrible nuisance". The field was being clayed by the county at the request of the Okaloosa Airport and Industrial Authority. Frank D. Duckett of

Shalimar, Florida Shalimar is a town in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. The population was 717 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Fort Walton Beach– Crestview– Destin Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Shalimar is located at (3 ...

, announced that he had opened the area's first air charter service at a Playground Chamber of Commerce meeting on Dec. 8, 1961. Duckett said that the 2,000-foot runway in Destin was being hard surfaced, lights were being installed and that fuel and maintenance service would be available. He was arranging for rental cars to be parked at the airport for incoming planes. The service offered a Tri-Pacer 135, four seat aircraft, with other types of aircraft available based on the customer's needs. Duckett said that the rates for the Tri-Pacer would be 5.5 cents per mile, per person, based on a full load of four persons.

Facilities and aircraft

Destin Executive Airport covers an area of 395

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (160 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic 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 surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 22 feet (7 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 14/32 with an

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surface measuring . For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2018, the airport had 63,987 aircraft operations, an average of 175 per day: 99%

, 1%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) an ...

and less than 1%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

. In April 2022, there were 61 aircraft based at this airport: 31 single-engine, 14 multi-engine, 11 jet and 5 helicopter.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines offering scheduled passenger service to non-stop destinations:

Accidents and incidents

The first fatal aircraft accident recorded at the Destin Executive Airport occurred on February 16, 1975, when a

Cessna 210 The Cessna 210 Centurion is a six-seat, high-performance, retractable-gear, single-engined, high-wing general aviation, general-aviation aircraft. First flown in January 1957, it was produced by Cessna until 1986. Design and development ...

with three people on board crashed shortly after a 0100 hrs. (1AM, local standard time) departure from the facility, the single-engined propeller cabin monoplane coming down one quarter mile from the runway in an area platted for the future Kelly Estates subdivision. All three were killed, the airframe burning completely with bodies burnt beyond recognition. Officials said that the plane was flying under a 200-foot ceiling with poor visibility. No flight plan had been filed. An investigator of the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

stated that there was no immediate evidence of mechanical failure. On April 17, 1983, a

Beechcraft Bonanza The Beechcraft Bonanza is an American general aviation aircraft introduced in 1947 by Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. The six-seater, single-engined aircraft is still being produced by Beechcraft and has been in continuous prod ...

clipped power lines and crashed south of the airport and knocked out power to most of Destin for hours. The pilot and passenger survived. On December 24, 1987, a

Cessna 150 The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation airplane that was designed for flight training, touring and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 22-23. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977. In 19 ...

attempting a landing at Destin Executive Airport was caught by the sudden onset of fog as it circled to land which cut visibility to nothing. The plane struck the 19th floor of the Hidden Dunes Resort, becoming lodged in the wall of unit 1901 by the fuselage and landing gear. The 39-year old pilot was seriously injured and his 31-year-old female passenger died on site from injuries from the impact. There was no fire. The pilot was pulled into the building through a window on the 18th floor. "A National Transportation Safety Board investigation later found he pilotto be at fault for the crash, having planned poorly by not accounting for the fog that was in the area and not being rated to fly in conditions that required instruments to navigate."

References

External links

Destin Airport / Coleman Kelly Field
official site
Miracle Strip Aviation
an
Destin Jet
the

fixed-base operator A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, ...

s (FBOs)
Aerial image as of January 1999
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...