Bechyně

49°16'51"N 014°30'20"E

runway: 12/30 - 2500x60m - concrete (CLOSED)
runway: 10/28 - 1400x20m - asphalt (emergency use - CLOSED)

Air field Bechyně (Czech: letišti Bechyne, also known as Flugplatz Bechin and 'Navigacni Punkt 800', ICAO: LKBC) was an airfield 90 kilometers south of Prague.
The airfield existed before the end of World War II, when it was known as Flugplatz Bechin.


No photos of aircraft at the airfield while in use have yet been located

Somewhere in the 1950s the airfield was rebuilt to accomodate jet aircraft. By 1958 it became homebase of 9 SLP operating MiG-17 (1958-1966). The Bechyně-based regiment received its first 12 MiG-21PFMs in 1966. During the Soviet invasion that followed the 'Prague Spring' of 1968, Bechyně was occupied relatively late (on 23 Aurgust). The day before a Soviet Il-28R had made reconnaissance flights over the airfield that showed the runway had been blocked by cars and trucks to prevent its use. Soviet troops were flown in by helicopter and cleared enough of the runway to allow a Soviet An-12 transport to land. It was followed a day later by Soviet MiG-19s and MiG-21s, either from the 33rd IAP from Wittstock in East-Germany or from an unidentified unit from the Ukraine. Soviet Mi-4 helicopters were also seen operating from the airfield. It appears that the Soviet fighters left on 7 November 1968.

9 SLP converted to the more advanced MiG-21MF/UM somewhere late in the 1970s. When the Cold War ended the Czechoslovakian Air Force continued to use the air base with MiG-21s and L-29 trainer aircraft. After the Czech Republic and Slovakia peacefully split into seprate countries in 1993 the airfield was closed however. Although the airfield is decommisioned, it is not abandoned: in 2005 the base was reconstructed to serve as the homebase of the Air Forces' 15th Engineer Brigade and 151st Engineer Battalion. Currently the only active aviation component is a helipad to support the local unit.


2004 overview of Bechyně (Google Earth)


2008 overview, showing at least some construction had taken place at the logistices site of Bechyně air field (Google Earth)


Photo of the airfield in 2017 (Magnus Emanuelsson)