Cape Dorset flight redirected after snow geese invade runway
Flight from Cape Dorset, Nunavut was redirected to Hall Beach following goose incident
Northern travelers are used to delays at the airport — but a recent problem in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, wasn't of the usual, weather-related variety.
A Canadian North flight to the small community was unable to land last Thursday because there were too many snow geese on the runway.
The flight was instead rerouted to Hall Beach, Nunavut, before it returned to its point of origin in Iqaluit. According to a passenger, the flight lasted nearly four hours, three times longer than the scheduled flight time.
The population of snow geese in the Arctic has exploded in recent years, with as many as 15 million birds nesting in the Arctic region. In the Northwest Territories, a spring sport hunt was allowed by Environment Canada in order to help cull the population, which can cause permanent damage to slow-growing vegetation on the tundra.
Kelly Lewis, the manager of communication for Canadian North, says that "we made that decision not only out of concern for the snow geese, of course, but also our passengers and crew.
"Disturbing such a large number of birds to clear the runway, it might have just sent the birds into the path of the aircraft," says Lewis, "causing damage to the aircraft and the birds."
Lewis says that by Friday, the geese had cleared the runway and flights were able to land as scheduled.