A small Piper plane loaded with COVID-19 vaccines and a six-person team took off Tuesday morning from the airport in St. Ignace, headed for a landing strip on Bois Blanc Island in the Straits of Mackinac.
Its mission was to deliver vaccines to the residents of the remote, 34-square-mile island in Lake Huron, southeast of its smaller but more famous neighbor, Mackinac Island.
About 60 to 70 people typically live on Bois Blanc (pronounced Boblo) Island year-round, said Kerry Ott, a spokesperson for the LMAS District Health Department, which serves the 34,600 residents of four Upper Peninsula counties Luce, Mackinac, Alger and Schoolcraft.