While the aircraft have the range to reach the Hawaiian islands, the A321H fleet is fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks to allow for diversion to an
alternate airfield within 3 hours flying time.
The airport once hosted the maintenance facilities for Avianca's Boeing 747 fleet and remains an
alternate airfield to El Dorado airport in Bogota.
It is 1,030 miles from the nearest
alternate airfield. Getting to Midway with only 1,600 pounds of fuel would not be ideal.
Civil pilots see FAR 91 IFR Alternate Airport Minimums: Ceiling and Visibility Minimums not applicable to USA/USN/USAF Pilots must review the IFR Alternate Airport Minimums Notes for
alternate airfield suitability.
Yokota is also being used as an
alternate airfield for planed that cannot land at Tokyo's Narita Airport.
The FAA's letter also said that the base would accept a legitimate emergency--including running low on fuel--but that "Allen Army Airfield (AAF) cannot be used as an
alternate airfield for civilian aviation."
The training covered take-off and recovery procedures for the F-22 Raptor to prepare for the possibility of an aircraft being unable to land at Elmendorf and needing to divert to an
alternate airfield.
The remaining guard days under that contract were used to provide security at V Corps's rear command post, finance office, and
alternate airfield where three UH-60 Black Hawks were on the ground during the final days of the exercise.
Balancing his need to reduce the overall gross weight in order to safely land on a short runway while retaining enough fuel to divert, gear-down, to an
alternate airfield if required, he decided to dump 9,000 pounds of total fuel (5,000 pounds usable, 4,000 pounds trapped).
There was only one viable
alternate airfield with a slightly longer runway about 2 hours away.
Anderson and Passman provide short bios of each of the twelve pilots who flew the X-15 as well as describe mission planning (including staff required for up to five
alternate airfields), Iconel X (an alloy required for the surface of each X-15 which could maintain its strength up to Mach 7) as well as the aircraft's design.
After obtaining current weather at their destination, the crew determined that both the primary and
alternate airfields were below minimum approach requirements.