Jekabpils Airport

Jēkabpils airfield is located approximately 5 km from the city of Jēkabpils, in Jēkabpils municipality, Krustpils parish. The area occupied by the airfield is 500 hectares. The length of the concrete runway was 2500 meters, of which about 2000 meters long, 40 meters wide runway have been preserved. There are more than ten small hangars in the territory, and 7 or 8 large ones, which were intended for larger aircraft. There are also 6 or 7 small bunkers - semicircular concrete hangars buried in the ground - approximately 4m in diameter. They were most likely used as communications centers, as they are located in strategically important places of the airfield. There is also one larger bunker, which was probably used as the main communications hub. The former infrastructure buildings of the airfield have been looted and destroyed. An aircraft repair hangar has survived on the airfield, an impressive structure, although it currently serves as a chip storage facility, as well as a number of other hangars. There are several horseshoe-shaped embankments on the airfield. Until the occupation of the Republic of Latvia, the airfield functioned as the Krustpils airfield of the Latvian Aviation Regiment. Around 1935, a new reinforced concrete hangar and two-story barracks were built. Before 1939, it was planned to open the Riga-Krustpils-Daugavpils State Air Line, which, however, was not implemented. After the occupation of Latvia, in 1940, the Latvian Aviation Regiment's "Gladiator" fighter planes were redeployed from the Riga Rumbula airfield to the airfield. During World War II, the Luftwaffe's 1st Fleet (Luftflotte 1) bombers were based at the Jēkabpils airfield. From 1962, Jēkabpils airfield was used as one of the military airfields on the northwestern border of the USSR during the Cold War. Until 1992, Jēkabpils airfield was home to the Soviet Air Force's 886th Special Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment (886-й Сталинградский Краснознаменный отдельный заведывательный авиационный полк, 886-й ОРАП) with two aviation squadrons, which used IL-28R (ИЛ-28Р), Yak-27R (Як 27Р), MiG-15 (МиГ-15), then Yak-28PP (Як-28ПП), and finally Su 17M4R (Су-17М4Р) and Su-24MR (Су-24МР) fighter aircraft. After the restoration of Latvia's independence and the withdrawal of the Russian army, the Jēkabpils airfield, with an area of 547.8 hectares, came under the supervision of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia, which transferred it to the ownership of the Jēkabpils District Council without any obligations. In 1993-1999, Jēkabpils Lidosta AS operated. In 2000, the airport land was included in the state free land fund. Buildings and communications, including ammunition depots, a command post, technical and economic buildings, were privatized by SIA Reka, except for 500 runway slabs, which were distributed to district municipalities. Around 2008, an asphalt concrete factory was built on the airfield territory, and a woodworking company operates in the barracks buildings. In 2013, 7 or 8 large, demolished military aircraft hangars and more than ten smaller hangars remained.

According to MyAirfields, activists have begun renovation work on the airfield - improving the pavement at the western end, painting the navigation path, installing wind socks, etc.

• On March 27, 1986, a Su-17M4 aircraft of the 886th ORAP of the USSR Air Force approached the Jēkabpils air base. During the approach, the pilot lost spatial orientation and the aircraft crashed into the ground. The pilot was killed.