Puerto Princesa International Airport (; ) is an airport serving the general area of Puerto Princesa, located in the province of Palawan in the Philippines. It is classified as an international airport by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. The airport is the main gateway to the Puerto Princesa Underground River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. History World War II The airport was built by American prisoners of war during the World War II from August 1942 to September 1944. It was used to accommodate large Japanese transport aircraft to complement the grass airstrip south of the present-day location of NCCC Mall Palawan in Lacao Street. The airstrip was constructed by hand by the POWs using crushed corals for illuminating night landings. The finished airfield has an area of with two runways. On December 14, 1944, occupying Japanese soldiers herded 150 remaining American POWs that constructed the airstrip into air raid trenches, doused them with gasoline, set them afire, then machine-gunned and bayoneted them to death. Among them was Army Capt. Fred Bruni, the Palawan POWs’ senior officer, who was from Janesville, Wisconsin with the 192nd Tank Battalion. Only eleven men escaped the Palawan massacre to be rescued by guerrillas. The story of their ordeal persuaded General Douglas MacArthur that the rumored order for the retreating Japanese to “kill all” prisoners was being implemented, thus his rush to liberate the Philippines. Imperial Japanese Army Air Force units based at this airstrip included the 71st Sentai Squadron (September 1944 – Early 1945). Post-war After liberation of the Palawan in April 1945, a number of US Army Air Forces units were stationed at the airport facility. These included the XIII Fighter Command (1 March 1945 – November 1945), 42d Bombardment Group (March 1945 – January 1946), 347th Fighter Group (6 March – December 1945), 419th Night Fighter Squadron (6 March 1945 – 10 January 1946), and the 550th Night Fighter Squadron (DET) (9–19 June 1945). US Army and Navy Engineers of the 1897th Engineer Aviation Battalion and the 84th Naval Construction Battalion immediately rehabilitated the facility and completed as a military airbase in March 1945. The Army and Navy engineers expanded the airfield, strengthening the runway by laying steel Marston Mats and concrete, adding air control facilities and tanks to store oil and aviation fuel. Puerto Princesa opened to air travel as