In this remote region, where major hospitals and airfields are hundreds of miles away, Bryce Airport provides critical emergency support. Built in 1936 as an emergency landing strip for commercial airlines, it has served that purpose twice since then, including in 2005 when American Airlines Flight 28, carrying more than 50 passengers, lost all engine power and landed safely here. It is also the main staging area for local search-and-rescue operations and fire management. Its 7,400-foot runway is unusually long for a small airport because it is designed to receive commercial aircraft and because the runway sits at a high elevation of 7,586 feet, where thinner air and summer heat reduce lift and can force some small planes to avoid mid-day takeoffs. The airport's hangar, also built in 1936, was funded by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, with local county commissioners designing it and supervising construction to meet matching-work requirements. Built of native ponderosa pine, the hangar is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Each year, thousands of tourists arrive by air at this historic airport to visit Bryce Canyon National Park, and when fires begin on the Paunsaugunt Plateau, whether from lightning, accident, or prescribed burn, the airport serves as a staging area for fire monitoring and management, as it did during the 2002 Sanford fire in Dixie National Forest.