W. H. Bramble Airport

W. H. Bramble Airport, formerly known as Blackburne Airport, was an international airport on the east coast of the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It was named after Chief Minister of Montserrat William Henry Bramble and destroyed by volcanic activity in 1997.

W. H. Bramble (Blackburne) Airport
IATA: MNI ICAO: TRPM
Summary
Airport type	Public
Location	Trants, Montserrat
Coordinates	16°45′32″N 62°9′23″W
Map
TRPM Location in Montserrat
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 15/33 1,030 3,380 Asphalt

History

Blackburne Airport was founded in 1956 under the leadership of William Henry Bramble.^[1] Named for colonial governor Sir Kenneth Blackburne, the airport initially boasted a 3,000-foot (910 m) compact earth runway, with stone foundations for 500 feet (150 m) feet in the touch-down area.^[2] The airport received a major extension in 1961 with Canadian funding.^[1] A 3,400-foot (1,040 m) surfaced runway was opened on 16 August 1967.^[3] During the 1960s, Leeward Islands Air Transport maintained twice-daily service between Montserrat and Antigua and five days a week service between Montserrat and Saint Kitts and Nevis.^[3]

Planned airport expansion in early 1995 was complicated by the fact that the nearby settlement of Trants was the site of archaeological excavation, and the UK Overseas Development Administration funded a 17-week mitigation project in order to evaluate sites located within the airport development area.^[4]

After a more than decade-long campaign, the Blackburne Airport was set to be renamed after W. H. Bramble in August 1995.^[5]

Destruction

Further information: Soufrière Hills § 1995–1999 eruption

During the eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano, the airport was evacuated and completely ceased to operate following serious pyroclastic flow activity on 25 June 1997.^[6] The airport terminal buildings were observed to be destroyed on 21 September 1997.^[7] Until its evacuation, the airport was the site of volcanic observations by time-lapse video camera which were later used to help estimate mean velocities of the flow pulse fronts resulting from the volcano's partial dome collapse.^[8] In February 2010, renewed pyroclastic flow activity blanketed the entire area under meters of ash and rock.^[4]

After the volcanic eruption, Montserrat was only accessible by helicopter or boat until John A. Osborne Airport (formerly Gerald's Airport) was completed in 2005.^[9]

In 2024, Premier of Montserrat Joseph E. Farrell unfavorably compared John A. Osborne Airport to the former W. H. Bramble Airport, citing the fact that Bramble Airport could accommodate 14-seater aircraft while Osborne Airport, being smaller, could only accommodate nine-seater aircraft.^[9]