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The aircraft rumbles over the sea, banking toward snow-capped cliffs as it makes its final descent toward Salluit.

After a day of easy flying, the crosswinds have come alive, drowning out the sky in an icy fog. But Melissa Haney guides the plane with a cool hand, calm in the knowledge that she’s done this hundreds of times.

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She’s at the helm of a 1991 Bombardier Dash 8 — a plane designed to take off and land on short runways, hit a maximum speed of 515 kilometres an hour while carrying up to 4,000 pounds of cargo, 45 passengers and an assortment of salty snacks.

Even so, as it hovers along the Hudson Strait — where the winds can reach up to 180 kilometres an hour in the winter — any illusion of technology having mastered Quebec’s northern frontier disappears.

“This isn’t so bad,” Haney says. “Sometimes it’s so windy we couldn’t land even if we tried. Up here, Mother Nature decides when we fly. The sooner you get used to that idea, the better off you and your crew will be.”