At least 50 (and probably a few more) aircraft appear to be stranded at Black Rock City Airport (88NV), the pop-up desert strip that serves the massive Burning Man event in Nevada. The airport, two 6,000-foot strips on the playa a few miles from the main event, was closed at 3:27 p.m. local time Friday when a major rainfall turned it and the festival into a sea of mud. About 73,000 people have been told to shelter in place as more rain is expected. An email to the event’s press inquiry address was not immediately returned.
There are typically dozens of private aircraft at the facility, which boasts a temporary ATC facility staffed by professional controllers who donate their time. The airport is also served by a charter operation called Burner Express that shuttles in attendees. According to raw data from FlightAware, about 880 aircraft arrived at NV88 between Aug. 25 and the closure and there were about 830 departures. The airport opened a few days before that data was compiled so it’s likely there are some tied down aircraft that arrived before Aug. 25.
Meanwhile, it could be days before the planes or anything else can move from the site. The playa, about 100 miles from Reno, is inches deep in mud and to avoid it becoming rutted the organizers have ordered attendees to avoid even pushing bicycles around. Officials said the earliest the roads might be passable was Monday but more rain fell Sunday and a post on the event site said more showers and thunderstorms were possible. It’s not clear how much longer the runways would need to dry before they can be safely used.
An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect FAA designation for the airport.
Does this mean they can’t burn “the Man,” too 🙂
Looks like a muddy mess stranding 73,000 partiers:
youtube.com/watch?v=aEvE5KGogfE&t=35s
” National Emergency”? Don’t think so. Drink another beer and wait it out.
Gosh Russ, Can’t you even read the Airport ID of the pic in the article???
What you listed in the article is about 100 miles away.
more then enough to get somebody lost.
I would think that “Not for use in navigation” is implied for AVweb articles.
Cut him some slack, Bob. I’ll bet the photo was added to the piece after he wrote it. Blame the FAA for assigning two easily confused identifiers to two (relatively) close aerodromes.
Well, thanks, anyway but Bob is correct and I misidentified the airport. Thanks to both of you:)
Russ
It can take quite a while for the surface to harden back up, and of course whatever ruts or other disturbances that were made in the mud will become surface “features” at least until the next significant rain. A mess, for sure.
Why didn’t they save everybody with eVTOLs?
Good time to have a helicopter.
What (lands) at Black Rock stays at Black Rock…
Sorry, but I have to laugh when godless eco-hedonists are trounced by Mother Nature.
So, Arthur J. Foyt : Did you mediate & contemplate & gravitate at Burning Man ?
Looks like attendees were medicated & confused & filled with inertia at Burning Man.
“… filled with inertia…”
If they were only half filled with inertia, what would be in the other half?
Arthur, I’ll admit to being godless, ecology minded, and a hedonist. Even heather For this occasion only since you brought them up I’ll wear those appellations proudly. Oh, and filled with inertia? You really crossed a line there. My real question for you is what do your comments have to do with aviation?
Shouldn’t he meditate before he mediates?