THUNDER BAY — A company based in Thunder Bay is providing disaster relief in Indonesia in the wake of last Friday's earthquake and devastating tsunami.
Wilderness North Air, a float plane and specialty air fuel delivery firm, is flying much-needed diesel fuel into Palu in the hardest-hit region of Indonesia.
The company began operations in northwestern Ontario about 20 years ago, flying clients to lodges and outpost camps.
It has been flying in Indonesia for about two years under contract with a state-owned oil and gas company, supplying fuel to remote villages.
"When the call came in from our client Sunday morning...asking if we could divert our aircraft, the answer was an immediate 'yes,' " said Wilderness North CEO Alan Cheeseman.
A single-engine Air Tractor 802, a crop-duster converted to a fuel tanker, is making two flights a day to Palu, providing fuel for emergency generators powering hospitals and medical clinics in the city of 350,000.
Flying from the Wilderness North base located about two hours away, the STOL (short takeoff and landing) aircraft makes two flights a day, carrying 4000 litres of diesel at a time.
Disaster relief has been slow coming in because much of the region's infrastructure was damaged by the quake.
At the local airport, a large crack in the runway initially closed it to all aircraft except for the Wilderness North plane, medivac aircraft and military planes.
"It shows the rest of the world this plane is capable," said Dave Gaudino, business development manager for Wilderness North.
"People always question how this little plane can compete against 737s that do the same thing, but it can. We actually don't even need a runway. We could have landed it on a dirt road," Gaudino told Tbnewswatch.
The company currently has two of the converted Texas-manufactured Air Tractors in Indonesia, but will soon add a third.
Gaudino said "it was a simple switch from here in northwestern Ontario, flying to reserves up north, to doing virtually the same thing in Indonesia."
Modifications to the new member of the fleet have just started at the Wilderness North base in Thunder Bay. The work was previously contracted out to a company in BC.
The conversion includes mounting a 1300-litre auxiliary tank to the aircraft, which makes it economical to use the plane as a tanker.
"It's actually the only dedicated fuel-tanker aircraft in the world," Gaudino said.
The relief flights to Paul are expected to continue for the foreseeable future, until land-based supply routes are re-established.
