Nonstop flight route between Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia and Shemya, Alaska, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Miri Airport (MYY), Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia and Eareckson Air Station (SYA), Shemya, Alaska, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,757 miles (or 7,655 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 Miri Airport and Eareckson Air Station, 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 Miri Airport and Eareckson Air Station. 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 Miri Airport (MYY):

• Because of Miri Airport's relatively low elevation of 59 feet, planes can take off or land at Miri Airport at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
• Miri Airport handled 2,223,172 passengers last year.
• Miri's location in the middle of Malaysian Borneo and close to the border of Brunei makes it a suitable hub for rural air services and an important gateway to Sarawak.
• In addition to being known as "Miri Airport", another name for MYY is "Lapangan Terbang Miri".
• Miri Airport is the third busiest airport in Malaysia terms of aircraft movements, serving 2.2 million passengers in 2013.
• The furthest airport from Miri Airport (MYY) is Carauari Airport (CAF), which is nearly antipodal to Miri Airport (meaning Miri Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Carauari Airport), and is located 12,365 miles (19,899 kilometers) away in Carauari, Amazonas, Brazil.
• Miri Airport (MYY) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Miri Airport (MYY) is Marudi Airport (MUR), which is located 25 miles (40 kilometers) ESE of MYY.

Facts about Eareckson Air Station (SYA):

• With the successful completion of the Aleutian Campaign in August 1943, Eleventh Air Force came within striking distance of the Japanese Kurile Islands, the northernmost being 750 miles to the south-southwest of Shemya.
• Eareckson Air Station (SYA) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Eareckson Air Station (SYA) is Cape Town International Airport (CPT), which is located 10,668 miles (17,168 kilometers) away in Cape Town, South Africa.
• In addition to being known as "Eareckson Air Station", other names for SYA include "Shemya Air Force Base", "Shemya Army Airfield" and "  ".
• By the end of 1944, several hundred American airmen had been interned by the Russians after their crippled aircraft landed on Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
• The station was also used by SAC Cobra Ball and other related projects which monitored missile-associated signals and tracks missiles during boost and re-entry phases to provide reconnaissance for treaty verification and theater ballistic missile proliferation.
• Because of Eareckson Air Station's relatively low elevation of 97 feet, planes can take off or land at Eareckson Air Station at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
• Shemya also continued to support the Great Circle Route for MATS and later Military Airlift Command transports between Japan and Elmendorf AFB.
• The closest airport to Eareckson Air Station (SYA) is Casco Cove Coast Guard Station (ATU), which is located 40 miles (65 kilometers) WNW of SYA.
• By August, Eleventh Air Force B-24s were carrying out successful and accurate attacks on the Japanese military installations and the B-25s were successful in driving the Japanese fishing and much of the shipping out of the North Pacific.
• The aerial photos taken on the raid showed the Japanese were building up forces in the area, transferring aircraft presumably from air bases on Hokkaido.