SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - On Friday and Saturday, the Yellowknife airport faced one challenge after another as thick fog hampered visibility and an unattended piece of baggage cleared the restaurant.

Steve Loutitt, manager of the Yellowknife airport, stands outside the terminal on an overcast Monday at noon. The weekend that just ended had been a complicated one for him and airport staff, as heavy fog caused delays and cancellations for the airlines. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

Steve Loutitt, the airport manager, said that there were delayed flights, as well as cancellations. He could not give a number of how many, as the airlines themselves - not the airport - are the ones who keep those records. Several airlines, including Canadian North, First Air and Air Canada, did not return phone calls by press time.

"It's unusual to get this kind of fog up here, but we've got a lot of open water around here and these temperatures have really been making it tough around here," said Loutitt.

He said temperatures from 5 C to -5 C create the worst operating conditions, as they commonly produce snow, slush, and fog.

Surprisingly, the optimal temperatures for the airport's operation are from -30 C to -35 C, according to Loutitt, as there is usually no snowfall or frost at these temperatures.

"In reduced visibility, we have some air carriers that can fly between a quarter and a half-mile of visibility during daytime operations only," said Loutitt.

"Unfortunately we were quite under a quarter mile."

This is required by their Reduced Visibility Operations Plan, which is developed under Transport Canada guidelines, which also requires them to bring in an electrician to make sure all the exterior lighting is in order. As well, runways and taxi routes are reduced so that there is less chance of collisions.

The fog caused problems on both Friday and Saturday mornings.

"The fog rolled in around 9:30 on Friday morning and closed things down pretty much around 2 p.m.," said Loutitt, adding that on Saturday morning the fog shut things down for about three hours.

On Friday the airport also faced another problem.

"To add to our busy day, we had an issue where somebody left a bag unattended in the restaurant," said Loutitt.

"When flights get delayed like this and everybody's waiting, people almost set up little camps around the airport, and unfortunately a bag got left behind - a laptop-type bag in the restaurant.

"We had to evacuate the restaurant for about 30 minutes while the RCMP came and checked it out. Our security guards did a swab for explosive traces on the bag, it came up negative, then the RCMP did their risk assessment."

Loutitt said that the bag was declared not to be a risk, and it turned out to belong to an employee of one of the airlines.

"It was left behind by an employee of one of the airlines, obviously accidentally, but it did cause an extra challenge, that's for sure," said Loutitt.