>Gifts and EMT Support for Town that Welcomed Unscheduled Landing
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>ATLANTA, April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL - news) is saying a big ``thank you'' to an Alaska town that gave a gracious welcome to a Delta flight diverted there in a precautionary landing on March 23.
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>Residents of Cold Bay, Alaska, -- population 69 -- took 220 passengers and crew members into their homes, cooked breakfast and provided blankets after Delta Flight 79, a McDonnell-Douglas 11 (MD-11) aircraft, made an unscheduled stop at the Alaska Peninsula village en route to Tokyo from Los Angeles.
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>``Cold Bay provided a very warm welcome to our passengers and crew,'' said Mac Armstrong, Delta's executive vice president - operations. ``The residents went out of their way to be helpful and treat everyone on Flight 79 like old friends. We would like to extend a little Delta hospitality in return.''
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>The town sent both its school buses, joined by volunteers with minivans, to the local airfield and shuttled passengers to the Cold Bay School gym, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service housing, and the two local inns. A number of passengers traveling with children were welcomed into nearby homes, while several Cold Bay residents stayed up all night cooking biscuits, bacon, salmon and rice for the travelers.
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>In gratitude for the town's hospitality, Delta will provide $7,000 to enable Cold Bay to receive a matching grant from the state of Alaska for a new two-way radio system for local emergency medical technicians (EMT). Delta also sent a gift of 50 cases of fresh fruit and vegetables not grown on the windswept tundra and will send Delta T-shirts for the kids at Cold Bay School.
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>Jim Zerbe, Delta's station manger in Anchorage, will present a check to the mayor, as well as a plaque officially thanking the people of Cold Bay, in a ceremony this week.
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>Cold Bay has a 10,000-foot runway dating back to World War II days, when the location was used as a military staging point. Today, the runway is an alternate landing site for the space shuttle.
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>SOURCE: Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Thats great!! Is there any scheduled flights into Cold Bay?

Pen Air is doing flights down there. Probably with Metro III and Saab 340 equiptment. It is about a two hour trip though.

I do want to point out that it was all private vehicles that did the hauling. There isn't a single school bus in all of CDB.

By the way this is where they landed. It is pretty impressive when you can fit the whole town into the shot.  

I have seen one photo of the A/C on the ground there. They parked it next to the FSS on the North ramp. The FSS is the blue building with yellow strips in the lower middle of the shot. The A/C parked on the far ramp from where the shot was taken.

Click for large version

Photo © Shawn Miller

I'm glad to see Delta is showing some thanks to the gracious people of that city.

Maybe they should give all the residents free return tickets!  

Thats the town? Damn its tiny. But wasn't DL's goft somewhat cheap? Some t-shirts, a plaque, and fruit??

Yeah, the $7,000 for the radio was good, but each family should have gotten a nice gift. tickets or something yeah.

rgds
russ

On the earlier thread about this incident we were musing at how the passengers were unloaded. I was at PACD three or four days ago and talked to some of the folks that work at the airport. They have an airstair and didn't have to use the forklift to de-board the passengers. As L-188 stated, it is about 2 hours and 20 minutes to Cold Bay in PenAir's Metroliner. Occasionally, Alaska Airliners passengers get to stop there when the 737 doesn't make it into Dutch Harbor. Glad to hear that Delta found ways to give back to the community.

One of the bright spots in the midst of all of the tension in the world.

That's great. I'm sure the poeple will benefit more from improved EMT services than free airline tickets. I don't poeple living in a place like this have a great demand for air travel.

One question, the space shuttle can land on a 10,000 ft. runway? I guess you'd have to nail that one to the foot considering you're in glide mode...?

That must be something new. PW4084.

When I was out there the only airstairs was one that was built for the Reeve Electras and one that was built for the IL-62. The one for the IL-62 will fit at 757 but my understanding was the door height was considerably higher..

They must have quickly modified it to fit that aircraft.

You probably saw the shot of the MD-11 that was in the ADN a couple of weeks ago when this happened. You see the forklife behind the aircraft and it appears to be manuvering the IL-62 stairs around.

I had heard that it took a while for them to start offload. My assumption was that it was they had to "learn" the stair didn't fit.

But your source seems to differ.

L-188, thanks for that information. I talked to a PenAir ramper who said they used the airstair and motioned toward where it is kept by the hangar. I found that picture (ADN 25-Mar '01) and it does appear to be the forklift and one of the stairs. Next time I am down there I will ask someone else and poke around to see what kind of airstair is available. I heard that all of Reeve's stuff is available for premium prices!

King Salmon has a UAL airstair that would easily accomodate a widebody a/c I guess.

thanks, PW4084

Excellent work Delta! Good move!!!!!!

AA@DFW

I hope other airlines do the same if they are in that situation. It really shows on how they do care.

Horrible. Delta is the cheapest airline...

They gave the town $7,000?! Big deal...spread that out over the 220 passengers and 18 crew members...ooh...Delta spent a big $29 per person rewarding the town...

Sounds a little cheap to me, considering that Delta saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to bus the passengers to Anchorage, feed them, and give them hotel rooms...at LEAST $200 per person...

Give me a break...

F L Y 7 7 7 U A L

despite what some have said this is a fairly generous gift.

Money for a new radio for the local EMTs is a very good gift that will go a long way to helping out the community. Plus the fresh fruits and vegatables are certainly going to be well liked by the families in Cold Bay. It is really much more than just individual compensation, which I would think would be a rather poor and typically corportate gesture.

Horrible. Delta is the cheapest airline...

They gave the town $7,000?! Big deal...spread that out over the 220 passengers and 18 crew members...ooh...Delta spent a big $29 per person rewarding the town...

Sounds a little cheap to me, considering that Delta saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to bus the passengers to Anchorage, feed them, and give them hotel rooms...at LEAST $200 per person...

Give me a break...

F L Y 7 7 7 U A L

No, you give me a break. Please.

What would UA have done? Given them a new 777?

DeltaSFO

Ooh...we've got a comedian here!

Nevermind...you've missed the point entirely.

F L Y 7 7 7 U A L

Good God, Fly777UAL, what did you want them to do, build the town a new airport?

Or would you have Delta throw free tickets at the residents of Cold Bay? I'm sure *those* will do them a lot of good when someone has a serious condition that requires immediate medical attention.

Bottom line, the importance of this gesture is greater than the sum of the amount spent on the gifts. The town gets something that makes them all better off as a community in terms of safety. They get fruit and vegetables (the value of which you conveniently forgot to mention), which would either be impossible or at least very difficult to obtain in Alaska, and surely rather expensive. 50 cases is no small amount of produce, especially for such a small town.

It's the gesture that's important. Cold Bay is getting paid back for its generosity with things they can use more than the cold, corporate gift of airline tickets and such.

I do agree that Delta's gift could have been a little more, umm... impressive? But the entire fact that they did give back to the community is great.

Also, they didn't give 7000 to the passengers, but to the small town which has 66 residents. That's a little over a hundred per person.

I would have been quite surprised if DL had not offered some sort of gesture of goodwill. Why risk further negative PR when a small expenditure can turn the whole story around such that it reflects positively on your company? Delta took the logical action. Also, it's certainly possible that such an event could occur again, so why take the risk of a customer service disaster?

True, Delta didn't exactly break the bank on their gifts, but they at least chose their gifts wisely. It doesn't seem cheap to me, but it certainly isn't frivolous.

HEY Fly777UAL.....Delta couldn't bus anybody anywhere! There aren't any roads there. It is either an hour by jet or three days by boat. And take a look at that picture of the place I posted....There aren't really a lot of apple orchards there either.

The problem with all the Reeve equipt up there is that it may be cheap but it has been out there a long long long time and unless you live there you have to get it out of town.

Oh forgot to mention at this least three times so far.

Runway 32 is 150' wide. So that should give everybody a sense of scale.


Pw4084......How often do you make it out there???

I believe the the remarks made by FLY777UAL are a reflection of what United has become. I don't believe United would have paid anything to the people of Cold Bay, however they probably would have given all the passengers affected vouchers for future travel. But then again, I'm sure Delta did too.

by PenAir, that is short for Peninsula Airways right? My dad used to work for Peninsula Airways in Kodiak, AK. If I am correct, I believe most of thier fleet is seaplanes.

Good job Delta for compensating the village. FLY777UAL, I wouldn't comment on Delta's customer service when your airline is not really an expert in that department.

One more thing... It took some thinking for me to reach this point too.

But somebody at Delta must have really been doing their homework if they found out that Cold Bay had a need for a new radio system for the EMTs. Which I still think is an invaluable gift.

Fact is, what they did for Cold Bay is probably EXACTLY what the villagers asked for. I have lived all over the bush in Alaska for almost 10 years, and these places are populated by very simple (don't read stupid) people who don't put a lot of stock in material wealth. A radio system for their EMS would be something that would be difficult if not impossible for them to fund on their own. And fresh fruit in the Bush? It's the food of the gods when what you are used to is fruit that has been in shipping containers for 10 days or more. Don't pretend to understand how these people live or feel, because obviously you don't. And to the moron who said Delta was cheap for not bussing them to Anchorage: go look at a map. Not only is more than 80% of Alaska not on a road system of any kind, Cold bay is so isolated that two hours in an airplane or 3 days on a boat are your only ways in and out of town, and both are wholly dependant on the weather cooperating, which it usually won't. The people in the Bush of Alaska would give a stranger the last can of soup in their cupboard. That's just the way things are done. Money means little. Taking care of each other is what life and survival in the Bush are all about. Hats off to Delta.. and quayana to the people of Cold Bay.

You know, I thought that the $7,000 was pretty measly too. But then I thought about it, and as has been posted here, their gifts were far more personal, and valuable. I personally commend Delta on their excellent move here.

Correct DeltaRNOmd80.......

So your dad used to fly for Orin?

Most of the fleet are conventional landplanes. About the only seaplanes that he has are the Gooses(Geese?) they use to fly to Akutan and other places without airports. I don't think that they have any other ones. I belive that they sold off the couple of Widgeons that they used to have but don't quote me on that.

They have everything from Cherokee Six's to Saab 340's running around right now.

Personally, I applaud Delta for the way they reciprocated the gesture of the townspeople. Considering today's cold corporate climate, I thought that their actions had a nice and personal touch.

L-188, I'll be in Cold Bay on Saturday. I'm working for Orin myself, make it out there probably 1-2 times a week. I think we have 3 G-21 aircraft right now.

PW4084

Lets see here......they should have..

The Blue Goose with the fixed tip floats.
7811 which was the one they got off the troopers.
And they have that one that was parked up by the ANC hanger with the wings off of it. Did that one get put back together?

So what do you do for Orin??? Just out of curiousity.

Do they still rotate the Mechs out of CDB week on week off??? I wouldn't mind doing that if they still are. If only I would finish school.

L-188, I am sitting in the right seat of the 'tube' currently. You are correct: no widgeons anymore. The airplane by the hangar is still there...wingless. I am sure there are three flying now, usually one in ANC for maint. and two on-line (at DUT). I'll check and see which they are. I don't think we are rotating mechanics through CDB these days. Mechanics are in demand though...

Yeah. The tubes.....nuf said....

It is a crime to leave a classic goose like that wingless. But I guess that economics rule out. :,-)

I believe that they had Mike on rotation when I left there in 97. That was after he left and stopped being the full time mechanic He was swapping off with Bob..


Anyway a dream work setup......couple weeks on out there and then off to a cabin up in GMU 24 or 25.

Time it just right to I hit the fishing season down on the chain and the hunting season up north......

It would be SWEET!

dream setup................that would be nice!

I'll report back from CDB after Saturday

Well, Keep your stuff tied down.

I have seen the troopers King Air 200 floating foot off it's tiedown straps once.

Oh I submit for your approval.....

Click for large version

Photo © Shawn Miller

Click for large version

Photo © Shawn Miller

This was when Ron and the trooper where still flying it.

Actually, they do still rotate MX out of CDB , L-188. When BET shut down last week, my buddy that does MX was told go to CDB or you are unemployed. So, he does one on one off out of CDB now. And he's got the cabin in the woods for the days off. Some jerks get all the breaks huh?

There's your chance L-188!!

Damm!!! to bad I don't have a license yet!!!

You where just waiting to tell me that trotterwrench!

I just noticed this......For all of the rest of you out in "radioland"(I always wanted to type that  )

That stairway next to the tank behind the goose is the tallest one that we had out there.

I wouldn't have thought it would reach the doors on a MD-11

from the 'Cold Bay' department:
I talked to a few more guys there on Saturday about the airstair, they said it was almost flush with the doorway....so it worked. It wasn't blowing too bad at all, SE at 21 gusting 30 when we landed (on Saturday). Also L-188, the wingless Goose has been sold and no longer sits by our hangar. Hopefully the new owner is in the process of getting it running. We do have three G-21s...two came from the troopers as you stated. The oddball aircraft is N22932 (the lower picture you posted). We made a few runs out to Adak, all in all a great weekend!

PW4084

yeah, I guess my dad worked for Orin. This was about 9 years ago when he worked for them, and I was just a wee one, so I dont know much about it. But I remembered he used to work for PenAir and he has a t-shirt of theirs. PenAir had a hangar near the Kodiak airport (ADQ) and that was where my dad worked. He was also a baggage handler for Mark Air and worked for Island Air, another seaplane operator I believe.