Page 22 - Twin & Turbine May 2017

Jet Journal
Dutch Treat
On nal approach to Unalaska Airport (PADU).
Flight to retrieve fishing crew provides up-close look at life at “Deadliest Catch” port.
by Kevin Ware
We are over the Bering Sea southwest bound at FL410 in the Lear 40. Off to our right is an ocean of broken ice heaped into odd-shaped forms. To our left is a group of yellow/brown tundra-covered islands with patches of snow visible even though we are well into spring.
Except for one container ship heading west, we are alone as far as we can see. And from 8 miles high you can see a long way.
We left Anchorage (PANC) a half-hour ago and are flight-planned to land in Dutch Harbor (PADU), about half way down the Aleutian Island chain, some 400-nm further ahead, in about 50 minutes.
Dutch: Remote Yet Important Fishing Port
There are few places a business jet crew can fly that are more isolated than Dutch Harbor, (known to the locals as just plain Dutch). Located 53.53 degrees North, and 166.32 degrees West, it is about 650 nm southwest from Anchorage, which itself is isolated. Unpredictable, low IFR conditions are common, alternate airports are few and far between, and there is only one ILS along the entire route, and that has the inhospitable but appropriate name of Cold Bay. Once you get to the far end of the chain, if unable to land it would be slightly shorter to just fly further west to Russia rather than return to Anchorage.
Yet, this isolated outpost of modern America purchased from the Russians in 1867, is the most productive fishing port in the world with well over 800 million pounds landed annually. In fact, the fish in just about every McDonalds-type “fishwich” sold nationally at one time came across the docks of Dutch. The fishermen that do this work, realistically stereotyped by “Dangerous Catch” TV
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