tourists, and the "Roald Amundsen Institute," a planned research station. Although the brothers received initial support from the government, the Soviet Union officially protested the airport on 5 November 1958. They claimed it could be used as an air force base—and thus would be a violation of the Svalbard Treaty—and pointed out that planning was partially financed with American military funding and that Gunnar was a military officer. From then on the Norwegian government started actively opposing the airport. At first they asked the company to cease operations, then asked the American military to cut funding. They also instructed all government-owned companies to not allow an airport to be built on their ground. The government also used Gunnar's military rank to hinder him, to limited extent, from pursuing the plans. The Aviation Act, which required all airports to have a concession to operate, came into effect from 1961, effectively stopping the plans. Hamnerabben Following the 1962 mining accident and the subsequent Kings Bay Affair, Ny-Ålesund was transformed from a mining town to a research outpost. The need for an airport to support commercial activity in Ny-Ålesund arose in 1965 with the construction of Kongsfjord Telemetry Station. The Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research needed to have an aviation connection with Longyearbyen to send magnetic tapes with the downloaded data to Germany. A road was built from the settlement to Hamnerabben, the site of the telemetry station. The top of the hill was sufficiently flat that a runway could be constructed. It was built by giving a long straight section of the road a width of . Waste oil was poured on the gravel to bind it. A smaller road was built to the north of the runway to allow road transport while the runway was in use. The airport was largely used to fly to Longyearbyen, although a limited number of flights were undertaken to the mainland. In addition to magnetic tapes, the aircraft were used to transport personnel and cargo, particularly during winter. Services were originally operated by Ski- og Sjøfly, but were later taken over by Svalbard-Fly, both of which had their Cessna 185 aircraft stationed in Ny-Ålesund. On 3 June 1970, a miner with a fractured skull was transported by ship from Longyearbyen to Ny-Ålesund and sent on board a Piper PA-31 Navajo to the mainland for treatment. After the telemetry station closed in 1974,