An ephemeral landing strip of 800 meters.
AFP
A frozen lake turned into an airstrip: This is not possible every winter, but this season it is cold enough for planes to land on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.
Nearly 800 meters long, the runway can only open when the ice is at least 30 centimeters thick, explains Paul LaRochelle, manager of this airport – the only ice airport approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US air transport agency.
“We don’t drive our trucks so far if we don’t have 30 cm of ice. If we have 22 cm there, 30 cm there, 25 cm yet in another place, we do not open. Not until it’s the same thickness everywhere, ”says LaRochelle, who goes out every day to measure the thickness of the ice.
