Dawson's field remains?
Looks like we have a definitive location
Eyewitness report from passenger on TW741:
"September 7: Captive in Jordan
Night was over soon, as dawn arrived at about 4:45 AM. The sun rose on an incredible scene: In a vast, silent void, on a stretch of parched, yellow-brown sand with an occasional pack of camels meandering by, sat two giant airplanes. Ours and Swiss Air 100, which terrorists had hijacked the same day as it flew from Zurich en route to New York. They had landed on the desert floor in the Zarqa province, about thirty-five miles northeast of Amman. The landing strip - mud flats, actually, that harden and crack under the searing summer sun - was known to outsiders as Dawson Field and to local Arabs as Ga Khanna. The PFLP now called it Matar ath-Thawra, Revolution Airport."
Google Maps
"Qa' Khanna (Qa' Hanna):
This is a seasonal playa lake elongated from NW-SE and covering 3,000 hectares, located 60 km ENE of Amman. It is some 15 km long and up to 5 km wide, with muddy sediments forming mudflats and some nearby saline marshes."
"September 7: Captive in Jordan
Night was over soon, as dawn arrived at about 4:45 AM. The sun rose on an incredible scene: In a vast, silent void, on a stretch of parched, yellow-brown sand with an occasional pack of camels meandering by, sat two giant airplanes. Ours and Swiss Air 100, which terrorists had hijacked the same day as it flew from Zurich en route to New York. They had landed on the desert floor in the Zarqa province, about thirty-five miles northeast of Amman. The landing strip - mud flats, actually, that harden and crack under the searing summer sun - was known to outsiders as Dawson Field and to local Arabs as Ga Khanna. The PFLP now called it Matar ath-Thawra, Revolution Airport."
Google Maps
"Qa' Khanna (Qa' Hanna):
This is a seasonal playa lake elongated from NW-SE and covering 3,000 hectares, located 60 km ENE of Amman. It is some 15 km long and up to 5 km wide, with muddy sediments forming mudflats and some nearby saline marshes."
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.
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 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...
BOAC VC10 leaving Beirut for Dawson's Field:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adBncB2FIOk
The aircraft being blown up at Dawson's Field:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBS2LTLv_tU
John Ferrugio who saved a lot of lives when the Pan Am 747 was hijacked to Cairo and blown up:-
John Ferruggio of Milton, hero of 1970 Pan Am hijacking, dies at 84 - The Boston Globe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adBncB2FIOk
The aircraft being blown up at Dawson's Field:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBS2LTLv_tU
John Ferrugio who saved a lot of lives when the Pan Am 747 was hijacked to Cairo and blown up:-
John Ferruggio of Milton, hero of 1970 Pan Am hijacking, dies at 84 - The Boston Globe
Bergerie1, can you point out where the BOAC VC10 is in that first clip? I scrolled through it but couldn't find it. It appears to be mostly about a 727 hijack from 1985.
BOAC VC10 Beirut to Dawson's Field (sorry - I posted the wrong video before!!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU11-_sNO1w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU11-_sNO1w
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
Air Chief Marshal Walter Lloyd Dawson. (check Wiki)
"He died on 10 June 1994.[2] Dawson's Field in Jordan, where the Dawson's Field hijackings took place, is named after him"
He was on the staff RAF Middle East during WWII, and was the last RAF commander in Palestine
"He died on 10 June 1994.[2] Dawson's Field in Jordan, where the Dawson's Field hijackings took place, is named after him"
He was on the staff RAF Middle East during WWII, and was the last RAF commander in Palestine
BOAC VC10 Beirut to Dawson's Field (sorry - I posted the wrong video before!!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU11-_sNO1w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU11-_sNO1w
747 PAA blown up at CAI
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.
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.
https://jpbtransconsulting.com/2013/...iro-hijacking/
Previously discussed here http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ow-1968-a.html see post #34
Richard
N4790P
No, the 707-436 that needed a wing section was G-APFP and it came from a TWA aircraft that had been W/O somewhere else.
Previously discussed here http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ow-1968-a.html see post #34
Richard
Previously discussed here http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ow-1968-a.html see post #34
Richard
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I have always been puzzled by the references to Dawson's Filed which I suspect may have been a bit of old RAF slang picked up by a journalist.
From late 1945 to Jan 1947 my father commanded the British Army transport base at Mafraq. My mother, younger brother and I joined him there from England in March 1946, staying there until the base was closed and we were posted to Jerusalem at the end of Jan 1947.
I knew the area very well as a 10 year old with nothing to do but hitch lifts on Army trucks and go riding on a couple of retired police horses we had.
Although RAF Mafraq is recorded as existing since 1931 there were no RAF there then. I think there was a landing strip because occasionally a BOAC Dragon Rpaide called in with supplies for the oil company pumping station at H5 (Mafraq is on the old Haifa pipeline).
I have always assumed the hijacked aircraft were landed on the salt flats. These were vast - we used to cross them on the way to picnics at the al Azraq oasis. I remember once we came across a squadron of Spitfires that had landed on the salt flats as part of a desert exercise. Plenty of room for a fleet of VC10s!
Wikipedia refers to the strip at Zerqa as Dawson's Field, I think wrongly.
The base the RAF built around 1951 was completely new and became the later Jordanian Air Force base. The hijackers would not have landed there.
I called in at Mafraq briefly in 1973 on my way from Damascus to Amman, when the old British base where I had lived was still unchanged, and again in 2010 when everything had been completely built over. I seem to remember the RJAF base main gate has a Hunter as guard plane.
From late 1945 to Jan 1947 my father commanded the British Army transport base at Mafraq. My mother, younger brother and I joined him there from England in March 1946, staying there until the base was closed and we were posted to Jerusalem at the end of Jan 1947.
I knew the area very well as a 10 year old with nothing to do but hitch lifts on Army trucks and go riding on a couple of retired police horses we had.
Although RAF Mafraq is recorded as existing since 1931 there were no RAF there then. I think there was a landing strip because occasionally a BOAC Dragon Rpaide called in with supplies for the oil company pumping station at H5 (Mafraq is on the old Haifa pipeline).
I have always assumed the hijacked aircraft were landed on the salt flats. These were vast - we used to cross them on the way to picnics at the al Azraq oasis. I remember once we came across a squadron of Spitfires that had landed on the salt flats as part of a desert exercise. Plenty of room for a fleet of VC10s!
Wikipedia refers to the strip at Zerqa as Dawson's Field, I think wrongly.
The base the RAF built around 1951 was completely new and became the later Jordanian Air Force base. The hijackers would not have landed there.
I called in at Mafraq briefly in 1973 on my way from Damascus to Amman, when the old British base where I had lived was still unchanged, and again in 2010 when everything had been completely built over. I seem to remember the RJAF base main gate has a Hunter as guard plane.
