In the far north territory of Nunanut, Canada exists a remote community called Pangnirtung which contains less than 1,500 people. The “airport” is a mere strip of land at the edge of a fiord with the runway cutting through the middle of town. To make matters even more interesting, the town only gets about three hours of daylight during this time of year.
Last weekend, disaster struck when ground water from several weeks of rain ended up affecting the runway’s lighting system; plunging the strip into darkness.
Air Captain Joel Pensivy was piloting his King Air 200 into Pangniritung on Saturday for a medevac, so a solution was needed to allow him to land.
“For us to be able to conduct that medevac that night they had revert to an emergency procedure — they put a flare pot candle burner at each runway light,” Pensivy told Canada publication CBC.
Flare pots are an old school bush pilot technique. They are invaluable in lighting remote landing strips that might not have the luxury of an electric lighting system. With advances in LED technology, use of the pots has mostly fallen by the wayside.
“It means the guy’s gotta be aware of the flight being inbound, and getting out there to light the pots,” Todd McKay, Nunavut’s director of airports told CBC. “And then again to stick around until he can to extinguish them at the end of the trip.”
Thankfully, Pensivy was able to complete his medevac successfully with the use of the flare pots. Electricians were flown in to make the necessary repairs. By Tuesday, the runway was once again operational. Though of course, The flare pots will still be ready for deployment, should the situation ever arise again.