Ice Airport Alaska

Ted Stevens International Airport is situated in the coldest, wildest state in America, and when winter approaches, it only gets colder and wilder. Bear and bird activity ramps up before the big freeze, giving wildlife managers all they can handle to keep the runways and airspace clear. And the season’s first blizzard gives the airfield maintenance crew a taste of what’s to come in the following months. See how the expert teams of workers keep the airport open and the traffic moving, on the runway, in the terminal, and in the sky.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year at airports across America, but Ted Stevens International in Anchorage presents several added challenges. It’s remote, the weather is extreme, and so is the local wildlife. Follow the airport’s hardworking staff—in the terminal and on the tarmac—as they spend the day taking on snowstorms, lightning strikes, and even birds of prey, all while welcoming through 187 cargo planes, 241 commercial jets, and thousands of passengers (including one North Pole celebrity).

In the depths of winter, Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage operates in the dark for up to 19 hours a day, so its state-of-the-art lighting system is vital to keep planes moving. Without it, air traffic shuts down. Follow the airport’s electrician foreman and his team as they race to fix a string of 60 runway lights that have gone out. Then head to the busiest seaplane base in the world, where pilots fly more than 150 missions a day into the Alaskan wilderness, always at risk of being stranded in temperatures as low as -35 degrees.

Ted Stevens Airport is about to make history in a way no one could have anticipated…or wanted. They are awaiting the first flight of American evacuees arriving from the coronavirus-plagued city of Wuhan, China. The North Terminal has been locked. Somehow, they must screen 201 potentially infected passengers while keeping operations running normally. Add on a damaging three-day snowstorm and a daring, first-ever attempt to airlift a small plane by helicopter, and it makes for a blizzard of challenges for the men and woman of the "Ice Airport."

As one of the most northerly international airports in the world, Ted Stevens is always braced for bad weather, but this season is breaking records. Weeks of relentless snowfall have pushed the airport and its crew to the brink, threatening safety on the runways and driving nearby vagrants inside the terminal for temporary warmth. Meanwhile, a small plane’s mission to deliver fuel to the annual Iron Dog Race becomes a life and death situation when vicious headwinds could ultimately force the pilot ditch in Alaska’s back country.

Winter is nearly over in Alaska, but at Ted Stevens International Airport, spring still seems a long way off. Snow is falling at an inch an hour and even with $40 million dollars’ worth of equipment, the airfield maintenance crew is struggling to stay on top of the blizzard and keep the runways operational. The airport is also experiencing white-out conditions, which play a role in a de-icing truck flipping over. It’s an accident that could release a 2,000-gallon cocktail of hazardous chemicals and diesel fuel unless it is quickly contained.