| Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport | |
| Iata: | UMZ |
| Icao: | KMEZ |
| Faa: | MEZ |
| Type: | Public |
| Owner: | City of Mena |
| City-Served: | Mena, Arkansas |
| Elevation-F: | 1,080 |
| Coordinates: | 34.5453°N -94.2028°W |
| Pushpin Map: | USA Arkansas#USA |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of airport in Arkansas |
| Pushpin Label: | UMZ/KMEZ/MEZ |
| Pushpin Label Position: | right |
| R1-Number: | 9/27 |
| R1-Length-F: | 5,485 |
| R1-Surface: | Asphalt |
| R2-Number: | 17/35 |
| R2-Length-F: | 5,001 |
| R2-Surface: | Asphalt |
| Stat-Year: | 2020 |
| Stat1-Header: | Aircraft operations (year ending 1/31/2020) |
| Stat1-Data: | 31,000 |
| Stat2-Header: | Based aircraft |
| Stat2-Data: | 23 |
| Footnotes: | Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] |
Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located 2nmi southeast of the central business district of Mena, a city in Polk County, Arkansas, United States. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.[2]
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport is assigned MEZ by the FAA and UMZ by the IATA (which assigned MEZ to Messina, South Africa).[3] The airport's ICAO identifier is KMEZ.[4]
Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport covers an area of 667 acres (270 ha) at an elevation of 1,080 feet (329 m) above mean sea level. It has two runways with asphalt surfaces: 9/27 is 5,485 by 100 feet (1,672 x 30 m) and 17/35 is 5,001 by 75 feet (1,524 x 23 m).
For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2020, the airport had 31,000 aircraft operations, an average of 85 per day: 93% general aviation, 5% air taxi, and 2% military. At that time there were 23 aircraft based at this airport: 16 single-engine, 5 multi-engine, 1 jet, and 1 helicopter.
A number of allegations have been made about the use of Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport as a CIA drop point in large scale cocaine trafficking, beginning in the latter part of the 1980s. Several local, state, and federal investigations have taken place in relation to these allegations. The topic has received some press coverage that has included allegations of awareness, participation and/or coverup involving prominent figures such as Reagan administration officials, then governor Bill Clinton[5] [6] and Saline County prosecutor Dan Harmon (who was convicted of numerous felonies including drug and racketeering charges in 1997[7]).
Attempts were made to investigate by both state and federal level law enforcement, however these efforts were frustrated.[8]
An investigation by the CIA's inspector general concluded that the CIA had no involvement in or knowledge of any illegal activities that may have occurred in Mena. The report said that the agency had conducted a training exercise at the airport in partnership with another federal agency and that companies located at the airport had performed "routine aviation-related services on equipment owned by the CIA".[9]