Naval Air Station Point Mugu Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) | |||
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IATA: NTD – ICAO: KNTD – FAA LID: NTD | |||
Summary | |||
Airport type | Military | ||
Operator | United States Navy | ||
Location | Point Mugu, Ventura County, near Oxnard, California | ||
Elevation AMSL | 13 ft / 4 m | ||
Coordinates | 34°07′13″N 119°07′16″W / 34.12028°N 119.12111°WCoordinates: 34°07′13″N 119°07′16″W / 34.12028°N 119.12111°W | ||
Runways | |||
Direction | Length | Surface | |
ft | m | ||
3/21 | 11,102 | 3,384 | Asphalt |
9/27 | 5,504 | 1,678 | Asphalt |
Naval Air Station Point Mugu is a former United States Navy air station that operated from 1942 to 2000 in California. In 2000, it merged with nearby Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme to form Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC).
At Point Mugu, NBVC operates two runways and encompasses a 36,000 square mile sea test range, anchored by San Nicolas Island. The range allows the military to test and track weapons systems in restricted air- and sea-space without encroaching on civilian air traffic or shipping lanes. The range can be expanded through interagency coordination between the U.S. Navy and the Federal Aviation Administration. Telemetry data can be tracked and recorded using technology housed at San Nicolas Island, Point Mugu and Laguna Peak, a Tier 1 facility also controlled by NBVC.
Major tenants[]
At NBVC Point Mugu:
- Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division
- Naval Satellite Operations Center
- Commander, Airborne Command Control and Logistics Wing
- Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 55
- Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 30
- 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard
History[]
The facility in Point Mugu, California, started as a United States Navy anti-aircraft training center during World War II[1] and was developed in the late 1940s as the Navy's major missile development and test facility. This facility was the site where most of the Navy's missiles were developed and tested during the 1950/1960 era, including the AIM-7 Sparrow family and the AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air, Bullpup air-to-surface, and Regulus surface-to-surface missiles.
Pt. Mugu has dominated the area since the 1940s, and is one of the few places in the area that is not agricultural. The base has been home to many ordnance testing programs, and the test range extends offshore to the Navy-owned San Nicolas Island in the Channel Islands.
In 1963 the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program was established on a sand spit between Mugu Lagoon and the ocean. The facility was relocated in 1967 to Point Loma in San Diego, California.
Point Mugu was the airfield used by former President Ronald Reagan during his presidency on visits to his Santa Barbara ranch. The airfield was used during the state funeral in 2004, as the place where the former President's body was flown to Washington, D.C. to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The body was flown to Point Mugu aboard presidential aircraft SAM 28000 two days later. Until the late 1990s, the base hosted Antarctic Development Squadron SIX (VXE-6), the squadron of LC-130s equipped to land on ice in Antarctica, to supply the science stations there. Now, the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing has assumed that responsibility.
Accidents and incidents[]
- On 4 August 1972, Douglas DC-3 N31538 of Mercer Airlines suffered an in-flight engine fire shortly after take-off on a cargo flight to Hollywood-Burbank Airport. The aircraft departed the runway in the emergency landing and was destroyed by the subsequent fire. All three people on board survived.[2]
- On 20 April 2002, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II BuNo 155749 of US Navy suffered a crash at the Point Mugu airshow. The cause of the accident was cited as pilot error.[3][4]
- On 18 May 2011, a Boeing 707 belonging to Omega Aerial Refueling Services and chartered to the U.S. Navy skidded off the runway and burst into flames shortly after landing. A reported amount of approximately 150,000 pounds of jet fuel was on board when the plane crashed. All three personnel aboard the aircraft survived with non life-threatening injuries.[5][6]
References[]
- ↑ "U.S. Naval Activities World War II by State". Patrick Clancey. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/USN-Act/CA.html. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ↑ "N31538 Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19720804-0. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
- ↑ "QF-4S+ Crash at Pt Mugu - April 20, 2002". Goleta Air and Space Museum. http://www.air-and-space.com/20020420%20Pt%20Mugu%20QF-4J%20Crash.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
- ↑ "Report: Pilot error caused crash - Pt. Mugu Air Show 4/20/2002". Ventura County Star. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2003/mar/12/report-pilot-error-caused-crash/. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
- ↑ "3 Passengers Escape Uninjured After Plane Crashes After Takeoff". http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/05/18/3-passengers-escape-uninjured-after-plane-crashes-after-takeoff/. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- ↑ Blankstein, Andrew; Hennigan, W.J. (19 May 2011). "3 hurt as refueling plane bursts into flames at Point Mugu". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0519-plane-crash-20110519,0,4803565.story?track=rss.
- Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC), official site
- Point Mugu Air Station, GlobalSecurity.org
External links[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Naval Air Station Point Mugu. |
- Resources for this U.S. military airport:
- FAA airport information for NTD
- AirNav airport information for KNTD
- ASN accident history for NTD
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for KNTD
- FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective October 31, 2024
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The original article can be found at Naval Air Station Point Mugu and the edit history here.