Abadan Airport is situated 12 kilometers away from the city of Abadan, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

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History

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Abadan Airport was a major logistics center for Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...

 aircraft being sent to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Beginning in May 1942, the United States Army Air Forces

United States Army Air Forces

The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....

 Air Technical Service Command and the Douglas Aircraft Company

Douglas Aircraft Company

The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...

 established a plant here, with the 17th Air Depot Group assembling newly-arrived aircraft and flight-testing them. Once prepared, they were flown to Mehrabad Airport, Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

, for delivery to the Soviets. The airport was designated as Station #3, by the Air Transport Command

Air Transport Command

Air Transport Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its mission was to meet the urgent demand for the speedy reinforcement of the United States' military bases worldwide during World War II, using an air supply system to supplement surface transport...

 North African Wing, with connecting routes to Mehrabad Airport, Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

; RAF Habbaniya

RAF Habbaniya

Royal Air Force Station Habbaniya, more commonly known as RAF Habbaniya, was a Royal Air Force station at Habbaniyah, about west of Baghdad in modern day Iraq, on the banks of the Euphrates near Lake Habbaniyah...

, Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, and Bahrain Airport, Bahrain

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

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Airlines and destinations

Incidents and accidents

• On 24 January 2010, Taban Air Flight 6437
  Taban Air Flight 6437
  Taban Air Flight 6437 was a scheduled domestic flight that crashed on landing at Mashhad, Iran on 24 January 2010. All 170 people escaped from the burning aircraft without loss of life. Most of the passengers were pilgrims returning from visiting holy sites in Iraq.-Aircraft:The aircraft involved...
  
  , a Tupolev Tu-154M, crashed whilst making an emergency landing at Mashhad International Airport
  Mashhad International Airport
  Mashhad International Airport or Shahid Hashemi Nejad Airport is an airport in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan, Iran.The airport is country's second busiest only to Tehran Mehrabad Airport and above the famous Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. In 2009 airport handled 5,005,645 passengers...
  
   due to a medical emergency; all 157 and 13 crew survived the accident with 42 receiving minor injuries. The flight originated from Abadan
  Abadan
  Abadan is a city in and the capital of Abadan County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. It lies on Abadan Island , from the Persian Gulf, near the Iraqi-Iran border. The civilian population of the city dropped to near zero during the eight-years Iran–Iraq War. In 1992, only 84,774 had returned to live...
  
   the day before but had to overnight stop in Isfahan due to weather in Mashhad
  Mashhad
  Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
  
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