BY-4247
Pribytki Air Base
MVFR
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Name
Pribytki Air Base
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ICAO
BY-4247
- Type
- Restriction
- Region
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Timezone
4:18 pm (MSK)
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Municipality
Gomel
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Coordinates
52° 18′ 18″ N 31° 9′ 47″ E
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Elevation
456 ft (139 m MSL)
About Pribytki Air Base
Zyabrovka (also Pribytki) is a military air base located 16 km southeast of Gomel, Gomel Region, Belarus.
From November 1951 to July 1957 the 50th Air Army of Long-Range Aviation included the 144th Fighter Aviation Division with its headquarters at Mogilev, Mogilev Oblast, Belorussian SSR. The division's 439th Fighter Aviation Regiment was flying MiG-15s and MiG-17s during that period from Zyabrovka. The regiment disbanded on 1 April 1958.
By the early 1960s Tupolev Tu-16R aircraft were flying from the base. The airfield was renovated in 1963. It received the Tu-22R around 1966, and by 1967 had 24 based there. Pribytki was one of nine major operating locations for the Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder in the mid-1960s. The reconnaissance aircraft were tasked with operations in the Baltic and northern Europe. From 1973 into the 1980s pilots from Libya and Iraq trained in the Tu-22 here. The Tu-22 units were disbanded in 1994 and the aircraft sent to Engels-2 for disposal.