Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport , also commonly known as Isla Grande Airport, is an airport in

Isla Grande Isla Grande is a small island and Corregimientos of Panama, corregimiento in Portobelo District, Colón Province, Panama, off the Caribbean coast. It had a population of 1,037 . Its population as of 1990 was 626; its population as of 2000 was 1,05 ...

, a district in the municipality of

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

. It is owned by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority and is adjacent to the

Puerto Rico Convention Center The Dr. Pedro Rosselló González Puerto Rico Convention Center (PRCC) (or ''Centro de Convenciones de Puerto Rico Dr. Pedro Rosselló González'' in Spanish), or simply Puerto Rico Convention Center, is a convention center located in Isla Gran ...

, the San Juan Bay, and the Pan American Cruise Ship Terminal, and overlooks Cataño. While Isla Grande's main activity is

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 ...

, it is still a commercial airport, handling domestic and international commercial flights. 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 2011–2015, which

categorized Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...

it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).

History

Originally constructed by the U.S. Navy as Naval Air Station Isla Grande just prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the facility also served as

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

's main international airport until 1954, when San Juan Isla Verde International Airport (subsequently renamed Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in 1985) was built. Until that year, all international airlines, such as Deutsche Luft Hansa,

Iberia Airlines Iberia (), legally incorporated as ''Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. Operadora, Sociedad Unipersonal'', is the flag carrier airline of Spain. Founded in 1927 and based in Madrid, it operates an international network of services from i ...

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

and

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

, flew to Isla Grande. Until 1971, the airport also hosted Coast Guard Air Station San Juan. That year, the Coast Guard relocated its air station to

Ramey Air Force Base Ramey Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. It was named after United States Army Air Forces Brigadier General Howard Knox Ramey. Following its closure, it was redeveloped into Rafael Hernandez Airpo ...

on Puerto Rico's northwest coast. Isla Grande was renamed in honor of

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Major

Fernando Luis Ribas-Dominicci Major Fernando Luis Ribas-Dominicci (June 24, 1952 – April 15, 1986), was an F-111F pilot in the United States Air Force. He was killed in action during Operation El Dorado Canyon, the April 15, 1986, U.S. airstrike, air raid on Libya. Ear ...

, an F-111 pilot who was killed in action during Operation El Dorado Canyon (the 1986 airstrike of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

). A controversy regarding Isla Grande and

Dorado Airport Dorado Airport or Dorado Beach Airport was a small single runway airport in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Clara Livingston, the owner of the property at the time, ordered the strip be built, and her friend, Amelia Earhart, may have used the facility a ...

surfaced in 2003. Dorado Airport wanted to expand and attract the private aviation sector that has been Isla Grande's main business for so long. Dorado airport eventually became a victim of urban development in Dorado and no longer exists. On October 26, 2003, the airport made history by becoming the first Puerto Rican site of a

SCCA The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...

Grand Prix race. In 2006, after a detailed impact study and many rumors about the future of the airport, the Puerto Rico Ports Authority announced that Isla Grande airport would remain open for the foreseeable future, mostly because of its key function as the primary reliever for the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. On August 4, 2011 the FAA announced that they were planning to close the airport's control tower due to budget cuts, since they operate it instead of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority. On July 8, 2012 airport officials denied via written communication to a local newspaper of "any plans to eliminate or privatize the airport, since the airport is one of the most important airports for general aviation on Puerto Rico, taking into account that its operation approximates around 300 daily operations." On that same newspaper it was published that Seaborne Airlines, a regional air carrier, would transition its scheduled passenger operations to the neighboring San Juan

Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

(SJU) with complete pullout on January 16, 2013."Niegan el cierre del Aeropuerto de Isla Grande
, Vocero de Puerto Rico July 8, 2012. For a short period of time between 2007 and 2009, the airport became the flight hub of Puerto Rico's unofficial flag carrier,

Prinair Prinair is a Puerto Rican charter operator airline. It was Puerto Rico's domestic and international flag carrier airline for almost two decades from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Despite previously ceasing scheduled commercial operations twice ...

, when that airline briefly returned to operating.

Facilities and aircraft

Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport covers an area of at an elevation of 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 designated 9/27 with an asphalt surface measuring . For the 12-month period ending September 30, 2013, the airport had 116,447 aircraft operations, an average of 319 per day: 92%

, 6%

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 2%

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 ...

. At that time there were 232 aircraft based at this airport: 33% single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, 37% multi-engine, 1%

jet Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to: Aerospace * Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines ** Jet airliner ** Jet engine ** Jet fuel * Jet Airways, an Indian airline * Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline * Journey to Enceladus a ...

, 24%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, and 6%

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Statistics

Puerto Rico Army National Guard Aviation Support Facility

The Puerto Rico National Guard Aviation Support Facility is the only military site on Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport. Its mission is to support the

Puerto Rico Army National Guard The Puerto Rico Army National Guard (PRARNG) — officially designated in Spanish as ''Guardia Nacional Terrestre de Puerto Rico'', but colloquially known as ''Ejército de la Guardia Nacional de Puerto Rico'' — is the Army National Guard of the ...

and the following units: * Company A, 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation Regiment * Company D, 1st Battalion,

114th Aviation Regiment The 114th Aviation Regiment is an aviation regiment of the U.S. Army. Structure The following units are part of the regiment: * 1st Battalion (Security & Support) ** Headquarters and Headquarters Company (AR ARNG The Arkansas Army National Gu ...

* Detachment 1, Company B, 1st Battalion, 114th Aviation Regiment The military aircraft at this facility are UH-72 Lakota and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and the Beechcraft

C-12 Huron The Beechcraft C-12 Huron is the military designation for a series of twin-engine turboprop aircraft based on the Beechcraft Super King Air and Beechcraft 1900. C-12 variants are used by the United States Air Force, United States Army, United ...

Incidents and accidents

* On October 1, 1942, a

Douglas C-39 The Douglas DC-2 is a 14-passenger, Aircraft engine, twin-engined airliner that was produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Company starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247. In 1935, Douglas produced a larger version called the ...

(DC-2) of the

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

flying from Juana Diaz Air Base in southern Puerto Rico to Isla Grande crashed into a hill in Coamo instead, killing all 22 people on board. * On April 11, 1952,

Pan Am Flight 526A Pan Am Flight 526A, a Douglas DC-4, took off from San Juan-Isla Grande Airport, Puerto Rico, at 12:11 PM AST on April 11, 1952 on a flight to Idlewild International Airport, New York City with 64 passengers and five crew members on board.

crashed into the sea just after takeoff due to engine failure, killing 52 out of 69 passengers and crew. * On December 21, 1991, a

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its mai ...

flight en route to San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport mistakenly landed at Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport. The aircraft, which was on a chartered flight as United Airlines Flight 5850, was later flown, without any passengers onboard (as the passengers departed from Isla Grande to their hotels by bus), to Luis Munoz Marin Airport. * June 7, 1992: An Executive Air (for American Eagle)

CASA 212 The CASA C-212 Aviocar is a turboprop-powered STOL medium cargo aircraft designed and built by the Spanish aircraft manufacturer Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA). It is designed for use by both civil and military operators. The C-212 ...

flying from Dominicci Airport crashed short of the runway in Mayagüez, killing both crew members and all three passengers. * In December 2002, a helicopter that had been rented from a company that operates out of this airport was hijacked and taken to a jail in Ponce, where six inmates boarded the helicopter, forcing the pilot to drop them off at a farm. The pilot was able to fly back after he lied to the prisoners about their whereabouts, making them jump off the helicopter and zig-zagging the helicopter to prevent them from shooting at him. Soon after, all escapees were found by the police. * On January 10, 2015, a Robinson R22 collided with the ocean (near

Cataño Ferry The Cataño Ferry ( es, Lancha de Cataño) is a single route ferry service between Cataño and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its route consists of Cataño ⇆ Old San Juan docking at the AcuaExpreso Cataño Terminal in Cataño on the route's southwest ...

terminal, San Juan bay) shortly after takeoff due to unknown reasons (as of 9/14/15), killing 1 (student performing a solo flight) and leaving the helicopter damaged beyond repair. *On July 4, 2017, an aircraft that had taken off Ribas Dominicci Airport crashed nearby at a bay. The crash resulted in four injuries.

References

External links

Isla Grande Airport
at

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...

*
Isla Grande Flying School
* *
Accident Robinson R22 Beta N348VH, 10 Jan 2015
{{Airports in Puerto Rico, state=collapsed Buildings and structures in San Juan, Puerto Rico Airports in Puerto Rico Miramar (Santurce) Closed installations of the United States Navy