Istres - Le Tubé Air Base Istres - Le Tubé Air Base ( or BA 125 ) is a large multi - role tasked French Air Force base located near Istres , northwest of Marseille , France . The airport facilities are also known as Istres - Le Tubé ( ICAO airport code : LFMI ) . Operational units and uses . Armée de l ' air . The user of the base is the Armée de l ' Air with several operational units on the base , including : Other uses . The base also hosts a helicopter squadron and a large repair and training facility . In addition , it also includes EPNER ( École du Personnel Navigant d ’ Essais et de Réception ) ; test facilities for DGA , Dassault Aviation , SNECMA , Thales and some aeronautical units of the French Navy . More than 5 , 000 personnel work on the base . Secondary users occasionally include the United States Air Force ( USAF ) , during Allied operations engaging United States and France . During Operation Allied Force , USAF KC - 135s and U - 2s operated out of the base . Istres was the home of U - 2 detachment OL - FR ( Operating Location - FRance ) . Istres was also utilized by NASA as a contingency landing site for the Space Shuttle in the case of a Transoceanic Abort Landing ( TAL ) . The base ' s runway is long and wide . An additional overrun area long was built for Airbus Industries in 1992 . It has the same characteristics as the runway , making it the longest runway in Western Europe and thus suited to Shuttle landings . Incidents . On 31 March 1992 , a Boeing 707 of Kabo Air , a Nigerian company , made an emergency landing at Istres after engines 3 and 4 had separated from the wing in turbulence at 35 , 000 feet . The aircraft performed a flapless , downwind landing with a touch - down speed of nearly 200 knots and the right wing on fire from the pouring fuel . The gear failed and the aircraft slid off the far end of the runway , but the crew of five survived and the cargo was saved . The incident brought to light severe deficiencies in Kabo Air ' s operations — the aircraft had passed mandatory maintenance and was overloaded . World War II . Built prior to World War II , Istres Air Base was first used by the Armée de l ' air during the early part of the war , and after the 1940 Battle of France and the June Armistice with Nazi Germany , became part of the limited ( ) air force of the Vichy Government . It was attacked on several missions by Allied bombers based in England while under German control after November 1942 . It was seized by Allied forces during Operation Dragoon , the Invasion of Southern France in August 1944 and was repaired and placed into operational use by the United States Army Air Forces XII Engineer Command , being turned over to Twelfth Air Force on 27 August 1944 . The airfield was designated by the Americans as Istres / Le Tubé Airfield or Advanced Landing Ground Y - 17 . It was also given the AAF designation of USAAF Station 196 . Twelfth Air Force initially assigned the 324th Fighter Group to the airfield on 2 September , with P - 47 Thunderbolts . However the 324th only remained a few days before moving forward to Amberieu on 6 September . The main USAAF use of Istres was by the 64th Troop Carrier Group , which operated C - 47 Skytrain transports from the airfield from September to November 1944 . When the combat units moved north into eastern France , Istres was used by Air Transport Command as a transshipment point for supplies and Allied personnel , being administratively controlled by the 1411th Army Air Force Base Unit . With the end of the war , the Americans used Istres as a staging point between Occupied Germany and Morocco for air transport of personnel back to the United States . It was returned to full French control in October 1945 . Sometime after World War II , until May 1958 Base Aérienne 125 was host to the Royal Air Force Liaison Party , that serviced transient British and Commonwealth military aircraft staging to and from the United Kingdom .