Northern aviator Willy Laserich dies

Northern bush pilot Willy Laserich, whose company provided essential air ambulance services in western Nunavut, died in an Edmonton hospital on Monday.

Laserich died from heart failure following a bypass operation. He was 75. Memorial services are being planned in both Yellowknife and Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, where Laserich had based his family-owned company, Adlair Aviation Ltd.

Adlair Aviation was central to the medical evacuation business in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region, which includes the hamlet of Cambridge Bay. Laserich began the company in 1983, although he had been flying with his Single Otter and Twin Otterplanes for decades before that.

His company's Learjet embarked on critical medevac trips from Cambridge Bay to Yellowknife and Edmonton.

In 2004, Laserich rescued a group of hunters who had been lost in a blizzard for several days about 70 kilometres outside of Cambridge Bay. As well, three babies entered the world on mercy flights he piloted over the years.

Laserich also gained reknown for his feisty battles with Transport Canada in the early 1980s. In the mid-1990s, he also brought to public attention the fact that Environment Canada automated weather stations in Cambridge Bay were making mistakes.

As of Tuesday morning, a number of northerners and former medevac patients had posted condolence messages to Adlair Aviation's website.