Antonov 225 at Leipzig Halle Airport
Taken by antonov.spotter on IG
Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC/PANC) was temporarily shut down today due to a reported bomb threat on an Asian-bound cargo flight. It appears that the aircraft was a China Airlines Boeing 747 operating flight CI5261 flying from Seattle to Taipei. However, two and a half hours into the flight they diverted to Anchorage Airport at 13:00 UTC. The aircraft was brought to a remote section of the airport where it was searched thoroughly. The FBI and Anchorage Police were on the scene and leading the investigation according to the airport’s Twitter page. Operations returned to normal soon after with the airport reopening 20 minutes later after its closure.
What happened to the other scheduled flights?
All other scheduled flights diverted to Fairbanks International Airport (FAI/PAFA) which is also located in Alaska. This included the famous Antonov 225 Myira. The aircraft was delivering medical supplies to Anchorage from Montreal operating flight ADB381F when the incident occured. The aircraft had previously been in the airport the day before. This was the first time the aircraft touched down on North American soil since 2018. It is currently flying back to Anchorage operating the same flight number.
Likewise, a Volga-Dnepr Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 was also diverted to Fairbanks after circling around Anchorage. The aircraft was operating flight VI3237 from Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH/KIAH) before the diversion. The Russian aircraft registered RA-76511 had previously come from Khabarovsk Novy Airport (KHV/UHHH) before heading to America on the 1st of May.
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-700 registered N615AS diverted to Kenai Municipal Airport (ENA/PAEN) from Juneau International Airport (JNU/PAJN), Alaska. The aircraft was operating scheduled flight AS73 and was able to return to Anchorage when the airport reopened again.
The diversion airports
Fairbanks International Airport is a state owned airport located three miles southwest of the Fairbanks district. It is also the smallest city in the US to operate a non-stop service to Europe. Condor offers weekly flights to Frankfurt during the summer season. The airport also has international flights to Canada with Air North and has many cargo flights to South Korea with Antonov Airlines. Its most frequent airline to operate is Alaska Airlines with just over 75% of all the airport's passengers going to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The airport also has 4 runways with the longest one being 3.597 km long. Therefore, it is perfect for the likes of the Antonov 225 which needs over 3000 metres of runway to land and over 3400 metres to take off. It also needs to be 200 feet wide.
Kenai Municipal Airport is a small city-owned airport located in Kenai, a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska. It only operates scheduled flights with two airlines, Grant Aviation and Ravn Alaska. Both flights go to Anchorage. The airport used to operate flights to Seattle via Anchorage three days a week with Wien Air Alaska in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In addition to this, they increased operations to daily flights with their Boeing 737-200 aircraft in 1981. However, they discontinued jet services into the airport in 1984 and only operated nonstop services to Anchorage with all the flights using their commercial turboprop aircraft. They had a vast profusion of turboprop aircraft in the 1970s and later converted to jet aircraft only in the 1980s. Nowadays, the airport’s longest runway is 2.394 km long and is perfect to land a Boeing 737-700 like today.
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