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Former airport of Praia, Cape Verde (1961–2005) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Francisco Mendes International Airport (IATA: RAI, ICAO: GVFM) was an airport located on Santiago Island in Cape Verde. It was opened in 1961. It was located about 2 km (1.2 mi) east of central Praia in the southeastern part of the island of Santiago. After Cape Verdean independence, the airport was named after Francisco Mendes, a Guinea-Bissau independence activist and that country's first Prime Minister.
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (January 2021) |
Francisco Mendes International Airport | |
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Summary | |
Airport type | Defunct |
Operator | Aeroportos e Segurança Aérea (ASA) |
Location | Praia, Cape Verde |
Opened | 1961 |
Closed | 6 October 2005 |
Coordinates | 14.9261°N 23.4948°W |
On 28 September 1998, a TACV de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter (registered D4-CAX) carrying Carlos Veiga, then Prime Minister of Cape Verde, 18 other passengers and three crew members crash-landed at the airport. There was one fatality (a bodyguard of the prime minister) and four people were injured.[1]
In late 2005, the airport was deactivated, and replaced by the new Praia International Airport (since 2012 Nelson Mandela International Airport).