Aircraft Crashes
The military has constructed several roads in the area to permit patrolling, as well as for logistics purposes from shore locations near anchorages east of the station, as well as to the airfield. Since Alert has not been accessible by icebreakers due to the very heavy ice conditions in the Lincoln Sea, resupply is provided by the Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft which land at the adjacent airfield.
Alert gets no sunshine from October 14 to March 1 every year, and doesn't get light at all for much of that time. Its weather conditions and isolation provide a significant challenge to pilots. This has led to some well-known crashes:
- In summer of 1950 an RCAF Lancaster crashed during the establishment of the JAWS weather station when the parachute for resupplies being airdropped became entangled on the tail of the aircraft. All 9 crew members were killed and are buried west of the airstrip.
- A subsequent flight (aircraft type unknown by this author) in 1950 to retrieve the remains of the Lancaster crew crashlanded on the runway in a dense fog. All members of this flight crew survived the crash. It was decided to create the burial mound at the end of the runway on the west side.
- A C-130 Hercules, part of Operation Boxtop 22, crashed about 30 km (19 mi) short of the runway on October 30, 1991, killing 5 of the 18 passengers and crew. The pilot was flying by sight rather than instruments. Subsequent rescue efforts by personnel from CFS Alert, USAF personnel from Thule Air Base 700 km south, and CF 440 Transport and Rescue Squadron, Edmonton and 424 Squadron in Trenton, Ontario, were hampered by a blizzard and local terrain. The crash investigation recommended all C-130s be retrofitted with ground proximity detectors. The crash and rescue efforts were the basis of a film called Ordeal In The Arctic (1993).
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