Japan Air Lines Boeing 747-400 flight 007 on air route NCA30 over Inuvik
enroute from New York JFK to Tokyo Narita at flight level 340 (34,000ft.)

The early 21st century marked a major change in air travel between eastern North America and Asia.  Prior to that, the usual route was across southern Canada to a refuelling stop in Anchorage, Alaska followed by a trans-Pacific flight skirting the edges of Russian airspace.  In the late 90's, however, a combination of new longer range aircraft, new air routes over Russia, and increased ETOPS times for twin-engine jetliners made flights along the direct great-circle route through the Arctic more practical.

With the burgeoning economy in the Pacific Rim, there are now hundreds of flights per week between North America and Asia, many of which pass directly overhead or within a few hundred miles of here.  Outside of ATC radar coverage for much of the trip, controllers rely on sophisticated computer software and frequent position reports to maintain 5 mile horizontal separation between aircraft.  Increasing, the position reporting is done automatically with GPS through satellite data links directly from the aircraft's flight management system to controllers on the ground.  A mandatory requirement for all aircraft to be TCAS equipped allows a reduced vertical separation of only 1000ft. between passing aircraft.  NavCanada also maintains a network of remote-operated VHF transceivers that maintains voice communications along all the busiest tracks.

I frequently get asked if any of them would ever land here.  There is no technical reason preventing it.  Our 6000ft. runway is a bit on the short side but the pavement is load-rated for even the heaviest aircraft and if they dumped fuel on the way in there shouldn't be any issues, even with a reduced runway friction index in the winter.  At only 150ft. wide, turning around would be a bit tight for the bigger planes and for an A380 or the stretched A340's it would be impossible without running onto the gravel shoulder.  Getting out wouldn't be an issue either.  They'd just have to leave light on fuel and stop in Fairbanks or Yellowknife to top up before carrying on their way.  The answer I always give to the question is "Why would they want to?"  There aren't many conceivable reasons.  On-board medical emergencies or even major mechanical problems probably aren't good enough.  Best to just press on for another hour to a more suitable alternate.  But never say never.  There's a whole lot of nothing for a thousand miles to the north, east and west of here and as they say, "Any port in a storm."