Why Alaska and Aviation Safety Go Hand in Hand
In a new book, FAA Historian Terry Kraus explores how aviation has defined and shaped Alaska.
The following foreword appears in FAA Historian Theresa L. Kraus’s book, Civil Aviation Policy in Alaska, 1913–2018, available for free on the FAA website (PDF).
By Dan Elwell, FAA Deputy Administrator
Like many people, my first look at our most majestic state was from the air. I was a young Air Force pilot flying a Lockheed C-141B Starlifter from Norton Air Force Base, California, where I was stationed, to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. I was immediately struck by the sight of harsh terrain. I knew Alaska had more pilots per capita than any other state in the union — and that the vast majority of them flew small, single-engine aircraft, with Alaska-appropriate names like Cub, Beaver, Otter, or Goose — but still, looking down at the unfriendly terrain below me, I couldn’t imagine making an emergency landing on the rocks and ice even though these aircraft were designed for landing on rough, unimproved surfaces. Yet, that is what Alaska pilots do every day. If huge tundra wheels won’t work, they put skis under their planes, or floats.
You don’t have to be a pilot or aviation expert to understand the importance of aviation to the state of Alaska. That is due, in part, to the fact that the majority of Alaska’s vast and beautiful landscape is only accessible by foot, dogsled, or aircraft. Alaska’s disproportionate pilot population is also an economic engine for the state. Pilots fly mail, milk, and medicine to remote villages. Guide pilots take city-slickers and hardcore adventurers into Alaska’s interior.
Much of what I know about Alaska aviation I learned during the year I spent as a legislative fellow in the office of Senator Ted Stevens. Uncle Ted, as many who had the pleasure of working for him called him (never to his face), was a WWII pilot who loved aviation (he continued flying into his 80’s). He had his private pilot license and was qualified to land on floats — a must-have skill for guide pilots. Senator Stevens knew how to talk to pilots and, more importantly, understood the uniqueness and challenges of flying in Alaska. During my short time on his staff and for years afterward, I worked hard to help him help Alaska improve aviation safety without hampering her pioneering aviation spirit.
Before I was introduced to Alaskan aviation, I heard from some regulators in the Lower 48 that Alaskan pilots were reckless cowboys. As I flew around the state and spent more time among the pilot community, I learned that nothing could be further from the truth. While every population has its outliers, the vast majority of aviators in Alaska are like pilots everywhere — safety is their number one priority. By their nature, pilots are a tightknit community. But, nowhere more so than in Alaska. In a state where the weather is harsh and the terrain unforgiving, pilots keep their eyes and their radios open to help each other out. “Lake Clark Pass is clear” is music to a pilot’s ears, as long as the report comes from another pilot and isn’t more than a few minutes old. That’s why Senator Stevens made sure weather cameras were installed in some of Alaska’s remote airports and treacherous passes like Clark, Rainy, Moose, and Merrill.
Aviation safety in Alaska has improved significantly since the late 1990s. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta was the original testing ground for ADS-B, a new aircraft surveillance technology that uses ubiquitous GPS satellite coverage rather than traditional radar, which is non-existent over most of Alaska. The aforementioned weather cameras, put in place in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the Medallion Foundation, established by Senator Stevens in 2002, were also instrumental in cutting Alaska’s general aviation fatal accident rate almost in half since the early 1990s.
Since Alaska’s statehood, no elected official has done more for the state’s safe growth of aviation than Senator Stevens. He was one of our country’s finest Senators. He was also an outdoorsman who loved aviation. A man who survived one aircraft accident — but was taken by another — he understood, respected, and supported the Alaskan aviation community like no other. With his passing, in a 2010 aircraft accident in Alaska, the state and the nation lost one of its greatest statesmen. But, his body of work will be remembered for generations to come.
So much wind has slipped beneath my wings since that first flight to Elmendorf AFB in the fall of 1987. Norton AFB is now San Bernardino International Airport, and Anchorage is now home to Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. Family and work responsibilities keep me in the Lower 48 for longer periods of time than I would like. But, I hold wonderful memories from many trips to that wild and beautiful state…memories that pull hard for my return. I’m so glad Theresa Kraus asked me to write this preface and that she decided to write about Alaska’s history through the lens of aviation. As you read this fascinating book, you will discover that Alaska’s identity is intimately tied to aviation. In fact, without aviation, Alaska would still be just a territory.
Read more about the history of aviation in Alaska in FAA Historian Terry Kraus’s book, Civil Aviation Policy in Alaska, 1913- 2018.
