Swiss jet, Antonov heavy-lifter leave Nunavut after Iqaluit engine exchange

The new engine for the stranded Swiss International Air Lines jet moves over the airport tarmac towards the jet Feb. 7 as the sun sets in Iqaluit. The switch of the new engine onto the Boeing 777-300 wrapped up Feb. 7 and by Feb. 8, after test runs and a system check, the aircraft was ready to return to Zurich. (PHOTO BY FRANK REARDON PHOTOS)

Iqaluit’s airport wrapped up a remarkable—and busy—week Feb. 9, starting with the emergency landing of a jet en route to Los Angeles and ending with the day-long stop of Government of Canada aircraft carrying the Prime Minister and his entourage to Iqaluit.

The week kicked off with the Feb. 1 emergency landing of a Swiss International Air Lines Boeing 777-300 on one engine, followed by the Feb. 2 departure of its 200-plus passengers and crew on a Swiss International Air Bus rescue flight.

Then, Feb. 4 brought the landing of the Antonov 124, carrying the new $24-million engine for the Swiss International jet, with huge aircraft’s arrival just before sunset witnessed by many of Iqaluit’s keen plane-spotting 7,740 residents.

The activity put Iqaluit’s airport on the map, as a team of engineers worked 24-7 in frigid temperatures to take off the faulty engine and put on the new one.

Finally the Swiss International flight left Feb. 8 for Zurich—followed by the departure of the Antonov late in the evening for the U.K.

The 11:31 p.m. departure of the hulking Antonov, a four-engine aircraft owned by the Antonov Co., a Ukrainian aircraft manufacturing and services company, put an end to the repair saga of the Swiss jet.

Stefan Vasic, a corporate communications manager at Swiss International, said the cost of the entire operation was “under evaluation and subject to further calculations.”

But the repair is sure to have been costly: according to online sites, 12 years ago it would have cost $500,000 to charter an Antonov for a trans-Atlantic flight. That suggests it was much more expensive to charter the Antonov from Zurich to Iqaluit in 2017— not counting the five days during which the aircraft sat idle at the airport in Iqaluit.

Its 18-member crew also stayed with the Antonov during the entire period, at the request of Swiss International, a spokesperson for the Antonov Co., told Nunatsiaq News.

Vasic said that, due to Iqaluit’s remote location and environmental challenges, the repair operation was unprecedented in Swiss International’s history.

It took most of the week to disengage the Swiss International jet’s engine, which had shut down in the air Feb. 1, bring out the new engine and then push the old one over to the cargo hold of the Antonov—more than big enough at 36 metres by 6.4 metres by 4.4 metres (118 feet x 21 ft. x 14 ft) for the engine.

At one point during the week, the Swiss jet sat on the tarmac, with only one engine, as it waited for its new engine to be attached under heated tents set up as protection against the cold, which often saw windchill estimates below minus 40 C.

After the new engine was attached, the Swiss International aircraft underwent test runs and a system check, to ensure its powerful, new engine was fully functional. You can watch that process here in a Youtube video posted by Iqaluit’s Brian Tattuinee.

The team of three technicians, whose engine repair job required a round-the clock effort, received thanks from the airline.

“All in all, we are very satisfied how this irregularity was managed on all fronts,” Vasic told Nunatsiaq News Feb. 9.

Welcome back home HB-JND. A big thank you to the engineers and all persons involved in Iqaluit and Zurich for their incredible commitment. pic.twitter.com/6WJtEZb7Ro

— Swiss Intl Air Lines (@FlySWISS) February 9, 2017

Although, while at the Iqaluit airport, the Antonov could be seen from many points around the city, few in Iqaluit were able to venture onto the visiting aircraft. However, Tattuinee, a sales manager at Canadian North, was able to go aboard the Antonov Feb. 6.

Tattuinee hadn’t counted on that—”but you just don’t say no to that opportunity,” Tattuinee told Nunatsiaq News.

“Inside the Antonov was very impressive. That’s a lot of volume and payload capability,” Tattuinee said. “It’s a lot of airplane to fill. But obviously specialized for large cargo”—like the giant engine, roughly the size of the fuselage of a Boeing 737, the kind of jet usually flown to and from Nunavut.

Before departing, the Antonov took six hours to warm up—although due to the dry cold of the weather, as low as minus 52 C, according to Antonov’s commercial executive Martin Banns, the aircraft required no de-icing,

While nearly everyone in Iqaluit was asleep when the Antonov left late Feb. 8, Tattuinee did take a video of the Swiss International jet as it finally took off earlier in the evening.

.@FlySWISS going home. pic.twitter.com/EvoNbjvLP2

— ᑯᐹᒃ ᐅᒃᑯᖅ ᑕᑦᑐᐃᓂ (@tattuinee) February 9, 2017

But for those in Iqaluit who missed the departure of the two aircraft, there was more to see Feb. 9 at the airport—the arrival of the Government of Canada jet carrying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the motorcade of rented black SUVs that ferried him off into town for meetings and announcements.

Then, Trudeau’s aircraft and those carrying his press corps departed in the evening Feb. 9—leaving the Iqaluit airport to its regular traffic.

As for the Swiss International jet, it’s set to return to its schedule Feb. 10, while the engine, which failed Feb. 1, will return to its manufacturer in Cardiff, Wales, in the U.K., where it will undergo a “thorough examination,” Swiss International spokesperson Vasic said.

How spacious is an Antonov-124? That’s a question that Brian Tattuinee of Iqaluit was able to answer for himself when he visited the Antonov Feb. 7, while the Antonov was in Iqaluit to bring in a new engine for a Swiss International Boeing 777-300—and then take the old one back across the Atlantic Ocean for repairs. (PHOTO COURTESY OF B. TATTUINEE/TWITTER)