Todos
← Back to Squawk list
Alaska Airlines’ Fascinating Route To Adak Via Cold Bay
As of May 16, 2020, Alaska Airlines will be launching a 2x weekly flight from Anchorage to Adak via Cold Bay. The flight will be operated by a 737 on Wednesdays and Saturdays. What makes this route so special? Well, just look at a map and I’m sure you’ll appreciate how cool this flight is. The journey covers a distance of about ~1,250 miles one-way, and Cold Bay is right near the halfway point. This isn’t the first time that Alaska has flown to Adak (which makes up part of the Aleutian Islands),… (onemileatatime.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
The Canadian flight mentioned is cool, it’s on a 737-200Adv with vert and lat only automation and gear and engine shields for gravel strip operations. Also is combi cargo up front, passengers in the back.. has a huge iron weight when flying passengers only. This route is heavily paid for by the gold mine up there.
I bet that will get some awesome shots for the shutterbugs out there.
Attu & Kiska had to be miserable battles to fight during WW2 & the Aleutian chain had to be miserable duty for the duration, but I suppose it was better than Banzai charges & Kamikazes in the South & Central Pacific. Cold would kill you just as much as contact w/the enemy. Planes would take off for a mission only to disappear into the fog & snow squalls never to be heard from again. Then, cold weather survival gear & training was nothing compared to today.
Alaska Airlines used to fly to Russia back in the early '90s, to Magadan, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and others but the collapsing Russian economy in the late '90s and likely political concerns, resulted in the flights being cancelled. Too bad as I would love to have a chance to travel there with my wife who was born in Russia but has never seen the east coast.
Visited Adak back in July 1959 when sailing on the troopship S.S. Fred C. Ainsworth (single screw, 14 knots) from Seattle to Yokohama; Adak was about half-way. We had military cargo to unload there. That poor island looks God-forsaken. No trees, the island looked like it had just emerged from the sea, and there was a low-lying fog showing only the bottom of the land parts, hovering about 20 feet above the water. I didn't see any dinosaurs that day. It was a Navy air station with necessary personnel. I went ashore for services at the Bering Chapel just to claim I had landed there. I still have the church calendar.
Flew Adak for Alaska when we had C-13o or l-382. Picked up Sea Otter's & transferred them to Sitka. This was in the early 70s. This was done to protect them from the Atom Bomb Blast.