Bearskin Airlines

The airline was founded in 1963 by pilot Otto John Egland and began operating in July of that year with flights to Big Trot Lake, Ontario. At the first stage, the company carried out only charter flights, flying to distant settlements of the indigenous peoples of the north on airplanes equipped with skis (in winter) and floats (for landing on a water surface).

In 1977, Bearskin Airlines launched the first scheduled flight from Big Trot Lake to the city of Sou Lookout ^[2] . Over the next years, the company gradually expanded its route network, adding regular flights to Thunder Bay , Kenora and Winnipeg . At the same time, the government of Ontario began work on the construction of new year-round airfields in northern indigenous communities. Since the infrastructure of new local airports was built with unpaved runways , in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Bearskin Airlines was able to completely abandon aircraft with interchangeable landing gears and switch to airplanes with conventional wheeled landing gears ^[2] .

After the bankruptcy of NorOntario in 1996, Bearskin Airlines received more than two-thirds of its route network, thereby expanding its own geography of flights with regular flights to all major cities in northern Ontario, and three years later the company also left the northern regions of neighboring Manitoba . In 2003, the airline sold the rights to operate flights to northern indigenous communities to another airline, Wasaya Airways , thereby focusing on scheduled passenger services and emphasizing its new status as a regional airline ^[2] .

Currently, the staff of Bearskin Airlines is 240 employees ^[2] .

As of January 2008, Bearskin Airlines operated regular flights to the following Canada destinations ^[3] :

Flights

As of July 2009, the Bearskin Airlines fleet consisted only of Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner aircraft ^[4] :

• 14 Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner

Decommissioned

Former aircraft operated by Bearskin Airlines ^[2] :

• Beechcraft 18
• Beechcraft 99
• Beechcraft King Air 100
• Cessna 180
• Cessna 185
• De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver
• de Havilland DHC-3 Otter
• Noorduyn norseman
• Pilatus PC-12
• Piper aztec
• Piper Navajo and Navajo Chieftain

Bearskin Airlines is part of the Aeroplan frequent flyer incentive program.

• May 1, 1995. Airplane Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner, flying on route 362, collided with Air Sandy's Piper PA-31 Navajo while flying at Su-Lookout airport . All passengers and pilots of both aircraft died ^[5] .
• December 4, 1997. When landing at Webekui Airport, the Beechcraft Model 99 of Flight 310 crashed onto the runway due to too low vertical speed at a decrease. No injuries were reported ^[6] .
• January 29, 2003. After takeoff, the Beechcraft Model 99 began to gain altitude; during the ascent, technical difficulties arose in the work of the horizon. The liner went down at a speed of about 600 meters per minute, then the PIC managed to take control of the flight mode, but the pilot did not have time to prevent a collision. The plane hit the ice of a frozen lake, both screws were seriously damaged. No casualties from the incident were reported ^[7] .

• Official site of Bearskin Airlines