Monroe County Airport is a county-owned public-use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located four nautical miles (7 km) southwest of the central business district of Bloomington, a city in Monroe County,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Commercial service has been available at different points in the airport's history but as of today and for the future, no scheduled service is available.

Facilities and aircraft

Monroe County Airport covers an area of 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 § Ver ...

of 845 feet (258 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has two

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paved

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, concre ...

s: 17/35 is 6,500 by 150 feet (1,981 x 46 m) and 6/24 is 3,798 by 100 feet (1,158 x 30 m). As constructed, the original runway was 5,200 feet (1,585 m) but was later lengthened to 6,500 feet (1,981 m) permitting the operation of

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

aircraft. In 1995, the aircraft parking ramp was completely replaced allowing for the handling of larger planes. 13 hangars were added at this time as well. Fixed Base Operator (FBO) services and car rentals are available. There are two FBOs at the airport: Cook Aviation (owned by Cook Group) and BMG Aviation. Commercial carriers offered scheduled service to and from Monroe County Airport until the late 1990s. Operations at Monroe County Airport received federal funding under the

Essential Air Service Essential Air Service (EAS) is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which had been served by certificated airlines prior to deregulation in 1978, maintained commercial service. Its aim is t ...

program until 1997, when these subsidies were cut due to the airport's proximity to

Indianapolis International Airport Indianapolis International Airport is an international airport located seven miles (11 km) southwest of downtown Indianapolis in Marion County, Indiana, United States. It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority. The ...

. After the loss of these subsidies, it was no longer economically viable for commercial carriers to operate at Monroe County Airport.

Accidents and incidents

*On 19 October 1985,

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The Vi ...

N923RC of

Ray Charles Enterprises Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

was damaged beyond economic repair when it departed the runway on landing. *On 21 April 2006, at about 23:45, a Cessna 206 N120HS was destroyed on impact while on an instrument approach to runway 35. The flight originated from the

Purdue University Airport Purdue University Airport is a public-use airport in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States. Owned by Purdue University, the airport is southwest of the central business district of Lafayette, in West Lafayette. Because of the heavy traff ...

(LAF), near Lafayette, Indiana, about 2245. The pilot and four passengers all sustained fatal injures in the accident. All five people killed in the accident were

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

music students. The 2020 documentary "Invisible Sky" is based on this accident. *On 17 December 2021, a Piper PA-32 N5677V crashed 3 miles south of the airport, killing the pilot.

References

External links

Aerial photo
from

Indiana Department of Transportation The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Indiana charged with maintaining and regulating transportation and transportation related infrastructure such as state owned airports, state highways a ...

* * *
{{Airports in Indiana Airports in Indiana Transportation in Monroe County, Indiana Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Indiana