MD-82 makes emergency landing at the Tonopah Test Range

Not a whole lot of details on this landing, but it is worth a FOIA request. By 2001, the F117 were long gone and the Tonopah Test Range was in "who knows what" mode. The landing was in daylight, so probably nothing secret would have been seen anyway.


ACN 519919

Time / Day

Date : 200107
Local Time Of Day : 0601-1200

Place

State Reference : NV
Relative Position.Distance.Nautical Miles : 145
Altitude.MSL.Single Value : 35000



AFT CARGO FIRE WARNING CAME ON DURING CRUISE. FLT HANDBOOK PROCS WERE ACCOMPLISHED, AN EMER WAS DECLARED, AND WE WERE VECTORED TO A VISUAL LNDG AT TONOPAH TEST RANGE ARPT (TNX). AN INSPECTION REVEALED NO FIRE INDICATIONS -- SUSPECT FAULTY SENSOR.

I wonder if they really landed at Tonopah Test Range field TNX

Or at Logan Field the old Tonopah Air Force Base (Tonopah Army Air Field)

en.wikipedia.org...

One will get you met with guys with M16s and the other is a good airfield with hardly anyone there.

Both will take MD-82 aircraft.

My guess is Tonopah Test Range TNX tower vectored them to Logan Field as the TNX radar is on a mountain between the two airfields and covers both fields.

a reply to: ANNED

The FAA radar is on a mountain north of both bases. I wouldn't call it the TNX radar. What you call Logan Field is KTPH. I'm pretty sure the pilot knows the difference between the two airports. KTPH is uncontrolled. It doesn't have any instrumentation other than the VOR. KTNX has an ILS. I have never seen any heavy at KTPH. KTNX has a crash crew.

What is really at play here is up until recently, there were never any airport diagrams for KTNX. You would have to dig up my post on ATS to see when they were first made public, but certainly they were not available at the time of this incident. That doesn't mean the KTNX controller couldn't give the civilian pilot the ILS frequencies.