Stranded islanders want summer flights

When the sea ice around one of Alaska's farthest-flung watery outposts melts, it takes with it more than a change of season. As sunlight and warmer temperatures descend on Little Diomede, which sits just below the Arctic Circle, the dividing line that separates this community from the rest of Alaska burns with more intensity. The runway that allows flights in and out during the winter withers away, leaving villagers with few options for air travel. It used to be that villagers could land space as passengers on the mail flight, but no more. The mail still comes, but the company providing the service has stopped allowing passengers on board.

It's not that there aren't options. But none are ideal. Solutions are costly, and depending on your views, they may also be politically prickly. There are no ambulances or taxis here to rush needy patients to crucial medical care. Here, as with elsewhere in Alaska, the sole and only reliable backup plan is to call on the Army National Guard to play personal driver, having its crew swoop in with a Black Hawk helicopter to scoop up patients and get them where they need to go.

The island is too small, steep and rocky for a plane to land. Helicopters can land at a pad near the small boat launch, but if fog has closed in, which it often does, forget it. Occasionally they can land on top of the island, but the higher perch has drawbacks. There is no road and no easy path down to the village, leaving residents who take this option to make the last leg home by scrambling down rocky cliffs with their luggage, and occasionally children, in tow.

These are not new challenges for the remote, impoverished community looking for ways to improve the quality of life for its residents, who are quick to remind us they are U.S. citizens who deserve equal access to the perks of modern American society, like education, electricity and access to health care. Yet a very real gap exists between philosophical ideals and day-to-day life.

"It's difficult," said Randall Ruaro, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Sean Parnell, and previously to Sarah Palin. "It's an isolated community surrounded by difficult terrain and rough weather."

Ruaro is actively pursuing a myriad of fixes for the tiny community, some on quicker timelines than others. His first priority? Getting Evergreen Helicopters, which flies the mail, to resume its passenger service to and from the island on its once-weekly mail route. "There are 16 to 32 empty seats a month that are going back and forth on the Bell 206 because there is not an agreement in place," he said in an interview earlier this week.

For 28 years, islanders have been able to squeeze onto mail flights provided space is available. The state isn't sure why, with Evergreen in charge, that changed last year. Ruaro plans to visit the company's headquarters in person next week, on his own time, to get answers.

One problem may be the company's use of a smaller helicopter than in past years, causing freight to take up more available space. But for Ruaro, that still doesn't explain why Evergreen won't take passengers from Diomede back to the mainland when, with freight delivered and the load lightened, there is more room on board. If they can at least get that much negotiated, then the state can look at ways to charter inbound helicopter service exclusively for passenger transport. And that's where another obstacle comes in -- money.