Babmo Airstrip

The closure was not due to a single event but rather a combination of factors common to many remote airstrips in Papua New Guinea. The primary reasons were economic and logistical: a lack of consistent funding and local manpower to perform essential maintenance, such as keeping the grass runway cut and the surface safe for landings. As the mission activity it supported may have scaled back, the justification for the costly upkeep diminished, leading to the runway becoming overgrown and eventually unusable.

The airstrip is completely closed and has been reclaimed by the jungle. Satellite imagery of the coordinates shows a faint, linear clearing where the runway once was, but it is now heavily overgrown with dense vegetation and is indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain from the ground. It is entirely unusable for any form of aviation. The land serves no specific purpose today, other than being part of the area surrounding the small Babmo settlement.

Babmo Airstrip was a classic missionary and community lifeline airstrip. Established in the mid-20th century, its purpose was to serve the remote Babmo Mission and the surrounding communities in the inaccessible terrain of East Sepik Province. It was a vital link to the outside world before the development of any significant road networks. Operations were almost certainly conducted by missionary aviation groups, such as Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF), using specialized STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft like the Cessna 206 or Pilatus Porter. These flights were critical for transporting missionaries, teachers, and healthcare workers; delivering essential supplies like food, medicine, and building materials; and, most importantly, conducting life-saving medical evacuations (medevacs).

There are no known official plans or prospects for reopening Babmo Airstrip. The airstrip is not on any current priority lists for rehabilitation by Papua New Guinea's Rural Airstrip Agency (RAA), which is tasked with restoring such facilities. Reopening the airstrip would require a significant investment to clear the vegetation, survey the area, re-grade the runway surface, and establish a sustainable maintenance plan. Without a strong new impetus from a local community, church, or NGO to fund and utilize the strip, the prospects for its reopening are considered virtually non-existent.