The Lieutenant Vicente Landaeta Gil Air Base (military short code BALANDA) is a Venezuelan Air Force military airbase. It was established on February 14, 1964. It uses the runway and some of the other infrastructure of Jacinto Lara International Airport, located in Barquisimeto in the state of Lara, Venezuela. It is named after a Venezuelan military pilot who died in the first aircraft crash in Venezuela. History 1960s On December 10, 1963, Resolution No. A-184 of the General Command of the Venezuelan Air Force (FAV) was passed, which resulted in the creation of the Lieutenant Vicente Landaeta Gil Air Base. Its most distinguished officer was a member of the First Military Aviators Promotion. This talented and outstanding officer died in a plane crash on February 4, 1931, at the airfield in Barquisimeto. The aircraft was a Farman F.190. It was the first accident involving an aircraft in Venezuela. On February 14, 1964, the facilities of the Lieutenant Vicente Landaeta Gil Air Base were officially opened for the B-40 Bomber Squadron, equipped with B-25 Mitchell aircraft, of the Air Bombardment Group No. 13. Simultaneously, the Police Air Squadron was activated in order to provide personnel, equipment, and protection for the facilities, as well as the operations carried out there. The honor of being its first commander was awarded to Major (Air Force) Juan Ignacio Leyzeaga, who directed the facilities until 1965, when the post was passed on to Major (Air Force) César Guerrero Zambrano. The motto of this new-born unit was "Insurance for tomorrow." The Lieutenant Vicente Landaeta Gil Air Base was conceived as an infrastructure with all services to operate safely and efficiently at any required time, thus ensuring maximum mobility and operational capability of any weapons systems that the Venezuelan Air Force needed. In 1968, a technological breakthrough was made when staff from this unit participated in the assembling the American F-86K aircraft in Venezuela. There was also a breakthrough in major inspections of the Canberra system, which was made abroad. The Unit participated with a bomber squadron of B-25 Mitchell aircraft in the flyby of the 48th Anniversary of Venezuelan Military Aviation, staged on the El Libertador Air Base in the city of Maracay. In July 1969, Lt. Col. (Air Force) Rafael Sanchez Mejias took command. During this year, the Venezuelan Air Force underwent a change in its structural organization to be reformed in the following way: General