Aeroflex–Andover Airport


Aeroflex–Andover Airport is a public-use airport located two nautical miles north of Andover within Kittatinny Valley State Park in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. The airport is publicly owned by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and used as a base for aerial wildfire suppression.

Facilities and aircraft

Aeroflex–Andover Airport covers an area of at an elevation of 583 feet above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 03/21 with an asphalt surface measuring 1,981 by 50 feet.
For the 12-month period ending January 1, 2010, the airport had 24,826 aircraft operations, an average of 68 per day: 100% general aviation. At that time there were 48 aircraft based at this airport: 98% single-engine and 2% helicopter.

Runway issues

Pilots consider landing on the short runway challenging, particularly for those who do not regularly use the airport. With large lakes on either end, it has been likened to an aircraft carrier.
On April 23, 2018, the pilot of a single-engine Citabria was traveling faster when he landed the plane and thus went further into the lake, roughly, according to observers. He was able to escape the aircraft before it sank at a point where the water was deep. After complaining of neck and chest pains, and having been exposed to cold water, he was airlifted to Morristown Memorial Hospital for treatment.
On July 5, 2019, accident, the pilot of a Cessna C172 who had left Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife and children aboard was forced to divert when Morristown Municipal Airport, his intended destination, was temporarily closed due to President Donald Trump and his wife visiting Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. The pilot and his family were rescued by a nearby fisherman before their plane could sink in of water in Lake Aeroflex north of the runway. None of them were injured.