The mayor of Alaska’s northernmost borough sought to seize some of the airplanes, hangars and equipment of bankrupt Ravn Air Group Inc. to ensure that remote communities continue to receive food, medicine and other goods, the Wall Street Journal reported. Though Alaska’s assistant attorney general said that the mayor didn’t have the authority to take the property, the mayor’s move surprised the airline and its lenders, which expressed concerns that other towns might use the same tactic. North Slope Borough Mayor Harry K. Brower Jr. on Sunday issued an emergency order seeking to commandeer the carrier’s local fleet and other assets, saying they have provided vital freight and passenger services to the borough’s roughly 9,000 permanent residents. The borough is nearly twice the size of New York state. His move came the same day that Anchorage-based Ravn filed for bankruptcy, saying it had run out of cash, grounded all 72 of its aircraft, and laid off virtually its entire 1,300-person workforce as revenue dried up due to the novel coronavirus. The North Slope government hasn’t seized any Ravn Air property, a spokeswoman for the airline said yesterday.
