Addu Atoll, also known as Seenu, is the southernmost island group in the Maldives. It consists of several large islands ringing a deep lagoon. There are several channels leading into the lagoon, with the best of these at the southern end of the atoll. The Royal Navy selected the southernmost island, Gan (pronounced "Yahn") for their airfield and began construction of three crushed-coral airstrips for the Fleet Air Arm. This was turned over to the Royal Air Force in 1957 and became “RAF Station Gan,” an airfield that would be used intermittently until 1971. The FAA airfield on Gan in theory could handle all aircraft in the British inventory, but it had short runways and larger bombers often crashed on landing.