The Nunasiavut Government in northern Labrador has purchased a 51% stake in the regional airline Air Labrador.  The announcement was made at the Northern Lights trade show and conference in Ottawa on February 3, 2012.  Air Labrador serves the coastal communities of Labrador, and some communities on the Lower North Shore of Quebec. Air Labrador operates Twin Otter, Cessna Caravan and Beech 1900D aircraft.

Five lawsuits have been filed in Nunavut courts following the August 2011 crash of a First Air 737 near Resolute Bay, Nunavut. Families of a number of the crash victims are suing First Air, Nav Canada and the Department of National Defence (DND).  The families of the First Air flight attendants and the pilot and co-pilot, who all died in the crash, have also filed suit. And First Air is suing DND and Nav Canada. The various suits allege DND and Nav Canada were negligent in the operation of air traffic control at CYRB at the time of the crash.   A military exercise, Operation Nanook, was getting underway at the time of the crash

The Canadian Transportation Safety Board released a progress report (Jan 5/12) on their investigation into the crash of First Air Boeing 737-200 C-GNWN at Resolute Bay, Nunavut on August 20, 2011. CBC News story here. On April 5, 2013, the TSB told CBC News that they have a draft final report on the crash prepared, but that it will be some time before the final report is complete and released. The final report was released on March 25, 2014. More detail on the report and links are available here.

The plane crashed on approach to CYFB, the Resolute Bay airport. Fifiteen people were aboard, including a crew of 4.   Twelve died in the crash, including all of the First Air crew members. Three passengers were medevaced to hospital in Iqaluit, Nunavut, from which they were sent on for further treatment to Ottawa, with non-life threatening injuries. Members of the Canadian Forces who were in Resolute for Operation Nanook, along with local volunteer firefighters, were involved in the rescue of the survivors.

A number of the those who died in the crash were employees of Aziz Kerhaj, owner of the South Camp Inn in Resolute.  Aziz and his wife also lost a granddaughter in crash.

Crash survivor Michelle Willamson told her story of what happened that day to CBC's The National. Video and transcript here.

Pilots and airlines in Yellowknife, where the flight originated, held a memorial fly-by a few days after the accident. The video is here. You'll see Buffalo Airways DC-3, DC-4, C-46; a Dehavilland Buffalo, Twin Otters, DASH 7 and 8, Beech 18,  Dornier 228, and others.  The fly-by finishes with a Canadian North B737.

The original CBC News story from August 20, 2011 is here.

Some photos, IFR approach plate and other information regarding conditions (METAR CYRB) at the time are available in the Aviation Herald article here.

More information was posted at cbc.ca/north on August 22/11. And again on August 23/11

There is also an extensive pilots discussion thread available at AvCanada, including IFR approach chart information.

It is pretty rare to find a Cessna 172 in Canada's high arctic. But that didn't put Werner Koch off.  He flew his 1968 172I C-GEGG to Grise Fiord, Nunavut in July of 2011.  See Grise Fiord by 172 in our Trip Reports and Visits section.  Here's his photo of the terminal building at the Grise Fiord Airport.  That's something very, very few people have actually seen!  Grise Fiord is Canada's northern-most permanent settlement, at the south end of Ellesmere Island.

An Air Tindi passenger plane crashed on a flight from Yellowknife to Lutselk'e in the Northwest Territories on October 4, 2011. Three passengers and one pilot were on board.  Pilot Matthew Bromley, 28, died in the crash, as did passenger Tim Harris, 54. Passengers Bernice Marlowe and Sheldon Catholique survived the crash.

The 1992 Cessna 208B Caravan, C-GATV,  was on a scheduled flight which left Yellowknife at 11:00 MT and was scheduled to arrive at 11:45 MT (October 4, 2011). It crashed about 25 nm from Lutselk'e.  The initial CBC News story, updated, is here.  Aviation weather information for the Lutselk'e area at the time was collected by this site.

The Canadian Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.  Their initial incident report is available here.

The Discovery Channel has a new reality show called Flying Wild Alaska. The program featuring Era Alaska, an airline based in Unalakeet, Alaska, flying everything from Cessna 180s on tundra tires to the C-23 Sherpa, to Beech Metroliners.  The Discovery Channel US website features lots of information about the show, and some great video clips.

The show feature quite a bit of flying, and some interesting story lines about life in northern Alaska.

And you'll find the soundtrack music intriguing as well.  Check out Pamyua, the Alaskan group whose music is featured on the show. Great stuff.  And you'll find more groups featured on the show at ThunderCloud Radio.

Air Canada Jazz announced recently that it is discontinuing service on its Montreal-Ottawa-Iqaluit route.  The cancellation takes effect August 1, 2011.

The daily Bombardier CRJ-705 jet service ran for a little over a year.  Air Canada Jazz started the route on March 28, 2010.  But, the airline says it just wasn't making enough money to continue the route.

Iqaluit is currently served by two northern airlines on the Montreal-Ottawa-Iqaluit route.  First Air and Canadian North are both Inuit-owned airlines, who also serve most Nunavut communities.  For more information on these and other carriers, visit our Airlines, Charters and FBOs pages.

Pilot Douglas Cairns flew in his twin engine Beech Baron, to the geographic north pole in April 2009. He landed a short distance from the pole, at the Russian Barneo ice research station, on wheels. He left on April 20th from Barrow, Alaska. Cairns has diabetes.  In the US, he is allowed to fly with diabetes.  In Canada, the rules are somewhat more restrictive.

According to this Reuters news article, the original plan included a support plane landing at the pole on skis to scout out a smooth ice surface for Cairns to put down his Baron.  Plans changed when the support plane wasn't able to make the trip.  Cairns headed for the Russian ice research station Barneo instead.  The Barneo ice station blog site has photos and video of Cairns' arrival there. There are also some great videos of other planes landing there.

Cairns planned to set a speed record beween Barrow and the pole, and to establish the Guiness World Record as the first to land a light twin piston engine aircraft at the pole.  He says he's making the trip to draw attention to what can be done by people and pilots with diabetes. Cairns has made a number of unique, awareness and fundraising flights, and has written a book about living and flying with diabetes.

The 747-8F freighter stopped by Iqaluit on March 14, 2011 for an overnight cold weather test.

Chris Harbord got some great video of the runway 34 takeoff on a nice sunny, -27 degree celcius afternoon, March 15th.

The Iqaluit airport attracts cold weather testing from a variety of aviation companies. These tests have brought some interesting aircraft to our town, including the Airbus A380, Eurocopter and more.

Television shows about general aviation, or aviation in general, are few and far between. The Aviators seems to be doing well, now into their third season.  re's a new one that made its debut last season fall. They're running on a number of networks, including PBS in the United States, and they have episodes of the program available for sale on their site.  You can also join their site, and get on-line access to episodes from the first seasons The website features previews of some of the programs, story lists, trailers and photos.  Some areas require paid membership.

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Aklak Air, a charter and scheduled flight operator in the Beaufort region of the Northwest Territories, lost 3 planes in a hangar fire in Inuvik, NWT, Canada on November 4, 2010.  Read more from CBC News. 

Lost in the fire were a King Air 100, a Beech 99 and a Twin Otter.  All three aircraft were well-known for long service across the north.

The loss cuts the Aklak Air fleet in half.  However, Aklak is jointly owned by the Inuvialuit Development Corporation and Kenn Borek Air, which should mean it will have access to Borek's larger fleet of aircraft to maintain Aklak's scheduled and charter operations. The Aklak medevac (medical transport) aircraft was not damaged.  It was being stored in a different hangar at the time of the fire.

The Inuvialuit Development Corporation, which owns Aklak, announced in September, 2011 that Aklak plans to begin construction of a new hangar in the spring of 2012.

NavCanada is discontinuing production of World Aeronautical Charts for Canada.  They are also withdrawing the existing inventory, effective September 23, 2010. After September 23, 2010, WAC charts are no longer authorized for operational use.

Here's the text of NavCanada Aeronautical Information Circular 17/10, which contains the details. We've added links to the NavCanada site for convenience:

The spring of 2010 brought big changes for our little Polar Pilots group.  For a variety of reasons, we sold our Cessna 172 C-GOLJ and hangar at the Iqaluit, Nunavut airport.  While that means we won't be flying locally for the forseeable future, we remain actively interested in general aviation in Nunavut.  And while we're no longer able to provide tie-down space for visiting small planes, we will continue to endeavour to answer questions and provide information for pilots travelling to our unique region.

We'll also continue to actively maintain the Polar Pilots web site.

Over the last 17 years we've met a wide range of pilots from all over the world. And we hope to hear from you, if you're planning a trip up this way.

Check out our Trip Reports and Visits pages for some new additions.  We have links to a trip report from Washington State, USA to Europe by Gary and Alice Nelson; the blog from another Cessna 182 trip from Vancouver, BC to Europe, and a link to blog of an ultralight pilot who took is Challenger from Montreal to the Arctic Coast community of Kugluktuk.

Have you made an arctic trip in a small plane?  Send us your story!

Iqaluit's first Air Show was quite a success.  It brought together a number of static displays, plus a fly-by featuring two Canadian Forces CF-18s, and a show by the Canadian Forces Skyhawks parachute demonstration team.

Overcast skies and cooler temperatures didn't stop hundreds of people from coming out on Saturday, August 22nd to the north apron at CYFB in Iqaluit.

There was lots to see.  On display were First Air's new Boeing 767 cargo plane and an ATR42; four aircraft from the Canadian Forces (CF-18, Aurora, Twin Otter and Seaking helicopter), Transport Canada's ice surveillance DASH-7; a Canadian Helicopters Bell 212; a Canadian Coast Guard BO-105-CBS helicopter; and Cessna 172 C-GOLJ.

Canada's Defence Minister Peter MacKay dropped by, along with then Chief of Defense Staff General Walt Natynczyk. They were in town to observe the Canadian Forces northern military exercise, Operation Nanook, which was underway that week.

Along with the static displays came a chance to see local aircraft at work. Throughout the show, just about everything was on the move: charters, scheduled flights and medevacs: including Kenn Borek Twin Otters, King Airs and DC-3, Air Nunavut's King Airs (which did a fly-by mid afternoon); a Canadian Forces Hercules, a Canadian Forces Challenger jet, and the First Air and Canadian North B737s, DASH-8s, and ATR-42s.

We had a couple of hundred kids (and quite a few adults, too!) visit OLJ during the show.  As you can see from the photo above, the chance to get behind the controls of even a small airplane was irresistible to many.  As one child was heard to say, while pointing across the tarmac at OLJ,  "Mom, I want to go and see the kids' plane!".

Credit for the event goes to Iqaluit Airport Manager John Graham, and Eric Leuthold and his crew at Frobisher Bay Touchdown Services. It was an excellent volunteer effort that brought rave reviews from those who attended.

Airport information, along with photos and tourism info have been added to the articles under COMMUNITIES/KIMMIRUT.  The photo at left shows approaching Kimmirut from the east (from Iqaluit).

The airstrip is the horizontal line in the centre of the frame.  Click on the photo to enlarge.