First Air crash stuns Resolute Bay and Nunavut’s High Arctic

A private ceremony was held on the morning of Aug. 21 at Resolute Bay’s St. Barnabas Anglican church for people to pay their respects to their family, friends and colleagues who perished in the crash. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

The community of Resolute Bay was quiet Aug. 21, the day after a Boeing 737-200C slammed into a hillside near the community’s airport, killing 12 and injuring three.

A private ceremony was held Sunday morning at St. Barnabas Anglican church for people to pay their respects to family, friends and colleagues who perished in the crash.

“It’s pretty quiet today,” said Ludy Pudluk, a former mayor of the community hit hard by the Aug. 20 crash. “You don’t see people walking around outside. We still don’t really know who is dead or not.”

The silence is in contrast to the previous morning, when hundreds of Canadian Forces personnel involved in Operation Nanook were busy doing training exercises – some even in preparation for an air crash simulation scheduled for Aug. 22.

Pudluk said he had become so accustomed to the sound of military helicopters buzzing above the community, he didn’t notice the sound of the jet crashing into a hill a few kilometres from Resolute Bay’s airport before 1:00 p.m. Aug. 20.

“There was so much noise, everyone through it was a practice,” Pudluk said.

When the fog cleared, a grisly scene emerged from the crash site, with widely scattered debris trailing smoke and fire.

When fire trucks had trouble reaching the crash site, Resolute’s volunteer firefighters used all-terrain vehicles to reach the scene and help other rescue workers dig through wreckage to find survivors.

When Pudluk arrived, he said he was not prepared for what he saw: “So many bodies, lying around in broken pieces.”

“One firefighter came to me and said ‘I can’t take it any more, take me home,’” he said. “I think these firefighters need healing, they’ve never seen this before. They were really shocked.”

Field teams, including counsellors, are on their way to Resolute to provide support in the coming days.

But Pudluk said the crash highlighted the need for better Arctic-based search and rescue, because, as it stands, his community is poorly equipped should there ever be an accident of the same magnitude.

“It could have been a lot worse without the help of the military,” he said. “We’re only 250 people here in Resolute Bay. Our firefighters don’t have a lot of experience with something like this.”

Nor does the community have the infrastructure to cope with the many phone calls as well as the officials, support workers and even media who plan to visit the community in the coming days, he said.

“There’s no accommodation for people,” Pudluk said.

The RCMP have forensic investigators now working at the crash site, which includes scattered pieces of the aircraft, which is said to have broken into three sections on impact.

Although information identifying the flight’s victims has begun to trickle in, the RCMP has yet to confirm the identities of the passengers who perished in the crash, saying families must be contacted first.

First Air confirmed that all four of its crew members died in the crash.

First Air flight 6560, which departed from Yellowknife the morning of Aug. 20, was charted by the Resolute Bay-based South Camp Inn, which regularly charters a flight to bring in food, supplies and workers.

The charter often carries passengers and food supplies that reconnect to a Twin Otter destined for the neighbouring community of Grise Fiord.

Larry Audlaluk of Grise Fiord said his community was “in disbelief” at news of the crash, although wasn’t aware of any Grise Fiord residents scheduled to return home via flight 6560.

The Resolute Bay company’s regular charter often carries food shipments destined to Grise Fiord’s co-op store, Audlaluk said.

“This charter is a prime example of us trying to make ends meets, because it’s so costly to live up here,” he said. “And then this tragedy happens…it’s so sad.”

Audlaluk spoke to a cousin in Resolute Aug. 21 who described local residents as “in a daze.”

“We are very close [to Resolute Bay] because we have a common history,” Audlaluk said. “We’re all somber today because we know some of the people who were on that plane.”