Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
Not that there were any 747s involved in the Jordan hijacks, but that runway certainly doesn't sound like the TWA captain's 30,000' TORA.
No sign of any salt flats, either. It's pretty clear that those coordinates have nothing to do with Dawson's Field per the journo's report.
As one who has travelled quite widely in Jordan, I would concur regarding the salt flats. There is King Hussein Air Base to the north-east of Amman, which is certainly in a flat area, but is a significant distance from the capital and in any case, it's been an air base since the end of WWII.
As to Dawson's Field, we should remember that in the 1960's it would have appeared to be very remote and there would have been plenty of unused flat land around the airfield. The hijacked aircraft would presumably have taxied some distance from where they had landed and since the land is flat and dry in that area it may have given the impression of salt flats.
However, there is perhaps another possibility. The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base/Al Azraq is not far from Dawson's Field and within the Zarqa Governorate. The picture which Dave has posted shows no signs of a conventional runway and the airbase only came into use in the 1970s. From Google Earth, it appears to be flat and unobstructed. Dawson's Field would have been the nearest known airfield and perhaps used as a reference, rather than a landing area.
The co-ordinates for Dawson's Field are 32-06-13 N 36-09-21 E
Al Azraq is 31-50-03 N 036-47-14 E
Just a thought...