Nonstop flight route between Falkland Islands and Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN), Falkland Islands and Goma Airport (GOM), Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo would travel a Great Circle distance of 6,029 miles (or 9,702 kilometers).

A Great Circle is the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere. Because most world maps are flat (but the Earth is round), the route of the shortest distance between 2 points on the Earth will often appear curved when viewed on a flat map, especially for long distances. If you were to simply draw a straight line on a flat map and measure a very long distance, it would likely be much further than if you were to lay a string between those two points on a globe. Because of the large distance between RAF Mount Pleasant and Goma Airport, the route shown on this map most likely appears curved because of this reason.

Try it at home! Get a globe and tightly lay a string between RAF Mount Pleasant and Goma Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN):

• The closest airport to RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN) is Port Stanley Airport (PSY), which is located 30 miles (49 kilometers) ENE of MPN.
• Mount Pleasant was opened by Prince Andrew on 12 May 1985, becoming fully operational the following year.
• Flights of Phantoms were rotated through the airfield until 1992 when they were replaced with Tornado F3s.
• 33 Engineer Regiment provides constant support and is part of the Joint Service Falkland Islands Detachment which consists of RAF and RLC EOD teams.
• The furthest airport from RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN) is Mohe Gulian Airport (OHE), which is nearly antipodal to RAF Mount Pleasant (meaning RAF Mount Pleasant is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Mohe Gulian Airport), and is located 12,353 miles (19,879 kilometers) away in Mohe, Heilongjiang, China.
• On 2 March 2012, the Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called for Aerolineas Argentinas flights to Buenos Aires to replace LAN Airlines flights to Chile.
• RAF Mount Pleasant is the newest permanent airfield in the Royal Air Force.

Facts about Goma Airport (GOM):

• On 19 November 2009, Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation Flight 3711, operated by McDonnell Douglas MD-82 9Q-CAB overran the runway on landing, suffering substantial damage.
• Goma Airport (GOM) currently has only 1 runway.
• Goma International Airport is an airport serving Goma, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The furthest airport from Goma Airport (GOM) is Cassidy International Airport (CXI), which is located 11,981 miles (19,282 kilometers) away in Christmas Island, Kiribati.
• Because of Goma Airport's high elevation of 5,089 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at GOM. Combined with a high temperature, this could make GOM a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• At 17:55 local time on 4 March 2013, a Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation Fokker 50 from Lodja crashed short of landing in heavy rain, into a residential area.
• The closest airport to Goma Airport (GOM) is Gisenyi Airport (GYI), which is located only 2 miles (2 kilometers) ESE of GOM.