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The KUCB Newsroom provides newscasts Monday through Thursday at noon and 5 PM on KUCB Radio. You can find many of our local news stories here.

Unalaska Fliers Stranded After Missed Inspection Of FAA Beacon

Pipa Escalante/KUCB

Updated 2/8/18 at 12:30 p.m. 

Unalaska is facing its third day of flight cancellations.

On Tuesday, the problem was weather. But since then, the trouble has stemmed from a navigational beacon at the airport.

"For whatever reason, that piece of equipment expired before it was re-certified," said Missy Roberts of PenAir, Unalaska’s only carrier with flights to and from Anchorage.

Roberts said the airline won’t fly until the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completes a missed inspection of its non-directional radio beacon, which helps planes navigate to the island safely.

The FAA hasn’t answered KUCB's calls for comment, but Roberts said Thursday that inspectors are waiting in Anchorage for fog to lift.

They’re exempt from any federal government shutdown. So once the weather clears up, she said they’ll fly to Unalaska in their own plane to examine the beacon. 

"As soon as that equipment is back up and running, we are ready to roll," she said.

For now, more than 100 passengers are stranded in Unalaska and Anchorage. Flights will resume Friday at the earliest.

Laura Kraegel reported for KUCB from 2016 until 2020. She was KUCB's news director starting in 2019. We are proud to have her back in the spring of 2023 filling in as an interim reporter for KUCB.
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