Remote travelers stranded

When Tuesday's terrorist attack on the East Coast triggered the grounding of all civilian flights over North America, dozens, if not hundreds, of people were taking part in Alaska's fall hunting seasons.

As the reality of the attack sank in Tuesday morning, Alaskan pilots were gathering information about the air space closure, communicating with clients and family members of clients and wondering, like many people, what they might be asked to do next.

"It's more than a weather day. It's a sad state of affairs that we are in right now," said Bill Bear at Bear Air in Wasilla. Bear said he always briefs his clients on the vagaries of Alaskan weather and felt confident that most of the people stranded would stay safe.

"It could be either bad weather here or bad weather from my departure point. They should be prepared even if it looks nice where they're at," he said.

Bear also expressed confidence in the system, which tied together the Federal Aviation Administration, local emergency response workers, and the United States military forces together and still planned to grant permission for emergency flights over the largest "no-fly" zone ever enforced by the United States of America.

"It's pretty easy, I think, for the FAA to make sure that the right people are flying the airplanes." Bear said.

Late Wednesday night, the FAA finally cleared Alaskan pilots to pick up their clients.

There's no way of knowing just how many people had been in the field looking at empty skies and waiting for their pilot to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Local commercial pilots who were able to answer their telephones Tuesday said they weren't worried about their clients so early during the closure. Emergency management officials said air ambulance flights, called "lifeguard flights" by the FAA, were being cleared on a case-by-case basis.

"I got the word this morning because I called flight service to get a briefing," said Paul Englund, owner of Susitna Air on Kashwitna Lake, on Wednesday. Englund said he first heard on the radio that lifeguard flights could be approved.

Englund said he figured lifeguard status was available just like any ordinary day -- to get the status, a pilot needs to identify himself to an FAA air traffic monitoring station, and from there the request would be channeled through to the U.S. Air Force for permission to fly.

Media reports have put the number of such flights anywhere between 30 and 55 over the first 24 hours of the closure.

Jack Krill, Central Mat-Su Fire Department chief, said he hadn't heard of any such flights into or out of Mat-Su. One local paramedic crew did request a helicopter Tuesday, and according to Krill, permission was granted but the chopper never took off.

"There was an accident call along Pittman Road," Krill said, "but the determination was made that the patient could be transported just as efficiently with the ambulance."

Around the country, airports were given the go-ahead to open at 7 a.m. Thursday. First, each airport had to pass a rigorous security check. New procedures have been implemented for passengers as well -- no curbside check-ins, no knives allowed on flights and only passengers will be able to go to gates.

FAA officials told passengers to expect longer check-in times, and to be patient.