American Notes ALASKA

During the short-lived detente of the 1970s, Americans could fly from the U.S. to the Soviet Union in just a few hours. The trip was possible only if the plane happened to be taking off from Nome, Alaska, and flying across the Bering Sea to Siberia. Now, in the wake of the Reagan-Gorbachev summits, Alaska Airlines wants to inaugurate a new weekly run between the two continents that would take only half an hour.

The Nome Chamber of Commerce sees the flights as a boost to tourism. But the most frequent flyers may turn out to be a group of western Alaskan Eskimos who are eager to resume contact with their relatives across the Bering Strait in the Soviet Union.