Jet blast from cargo plane smashes windows out of Iqaluit van

Hasan Mahmoud and his dad were driving down a public road, between the Iqaluit International Airport and Frobisher Bay Wednesday when the jet blast from a military cargo plane blew the windows out of one side of their van.

"Out of nowhere there was no visibility," Mahmoud said. "There was debris hitting the car. I tried to roll up my window in time. By the time we were out of it, I looked around me — the windows were broken, I was covered in glass."

In a Facebook post, Mahmoud described the scene as a "hurricane of debris."

The force was strong enough to leave bullet-sized dents along the passenger side of the vehicle, where Mahmoud was sitting.

No one was injured in the blast, but Mahmoud said it could have been much worse.

"I was aware at the time, luckily, so I had bit of time to react, was able to turn my head and cover my face," he said.

The road they were driving on is used regularly by people heading to the dump, the Sylvia Grinnell River or numerous fishing and camping spots. The route is frequently used by pedestrians and joggers.

Mahmoud said there were vehicles in front of and behind him when the jets fired up without warning. 

'A lot of thrust'

Planes land and take off from the Iqaluit airport every day, but few have the power of a C-17 Globemaster III. The military cargo plane stopped in Iqaluit because of bad weather in Alert.

"Normally we're equipped for large aircraft like that," said John Hawkins, Iqaluit's airport manager. "We're not really set up for them right now." 

Iqaluit's airport is in the middle of a giant renovation project. The runway, normally about 60 metres wide, is now about 30 metres. The runway has been temporarily closed to large cargo jets, which fly regularly into the capital with food and supplies. 

The Globemaster's wings would have been hanging over gravel instead of pavement.

"The C-17 generates a lot of thrust," he said, explaining that it picked up "an enormous amount of gravel and threw it back there at high velocity.

"And unfortunately it did hit that vehicle."

Big airports in southern Canada use jet blast deflector walls at the end of their runways.

Hawkins says it would be up to the Nunavut government to decide whether one should be installed.

For now, he says the only solution would be to close the road every time a cargo jet takes off. 

The risk in the area is known.

A chain link fence at the runway boasts signs in English, French and Inuktitut that reads: "Danger jet blasts."