Canadian wildfire smoke drifts across Northern Michigan

Wildfire smoke has changed the flight schedule for Northwestern Michigan’s aviation program. Aviation instructors at the NMC Hanger at the Cherry Capital Airport decided not to take any risks in the sky due to the smoke. Wednesday morning NMC aviation made the call to ground all flights through Thursday possibly into Friday. Normally NMC aviation would be sending about 10 to 15 planes. The director of aviation for NMC said their number one concern is safety, Not only is that smoke bringing visibility in the skies way down it's also a risk to the student pilot's health. "If they're up flying and they have any sort of distractions, whether it be an underlying respiratory issue or allergies or just a reaction that they weren't predicting, they're going to have to deal with that while flying an aircraft,” said Alex Bloye, director of aviation at NMC. “And that's just not a safe environment." Kevin Kline, the operation manager at Cherry Capital Airport, said flights on their end haven't been impacted as of now. Bloye explained NMC planes are different from commercial airlines because their cabins aren't pressurized meaning that smoke can enter the cabin. Bloye said it isn't uncommon for NMC to ground flights in bad weather conditions. DETAILS: https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/wi... -------------------------------- For all of your news, weather and sports needs: http://www.upnorthlive.com Like us on Facebook:   / upnorthlive   Follow us on twitter: @upnorthlive.com Download our app, available for iPhone and Android! #traversecity #localnews #news #video #upnorthlive #michigan