Three dead in Kangirsuk plane crash

Three people died after a small aircraft crashed outside of Kangirsuk June 11. (FILE PHOTO)

(Updated at 3:00 p.m.)

A small plane has crashed outside of the Nunavik community of Kangirsuk, killing all three passengers on board.

The Piper 23 twin-engined aircraft, sometimes referred to as an Aztec, is believed to have gone down along Ungava Bay on the evening of June 11.

The Kativik Regional Government said its transportation department received an emergency locator transmitter signal that evening coming from near the community.

The following morning, a Hercules aircraft dispatched by the Canadian Forces’ Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ont. located the crash site on the morning of June 12, a spokesperson told Nunatsiaq News, where three bodies were recovered.

The three victims have yet to be identified.

But other details about the crash are unclear.

Transportation and Safety Board spokesperson John Cottreau said that, according to the information he’s received, the plane crashed around 11:30 p.m. June 11.

Some residents of Kangirsuk posted to social media, saying they spotted a small plane fly past the community just before 10:00 p.m. June 11, before seeing it appear to dive downwards. Some people then reported hearing an explosion.

The TSB is currently gathering information on the crash before it decides if the board will send an investigator to the site.

Cottreau said the TSB is not aware of the plane’s flight plan, but believes that the Piper 23 was a private aircraft.

Nunavik’s regional airline Air Inuit confirmed June 12 that the downed plane was not one of its aircraft, nor was it an aircraft belonging to Johnny May’s Air Charters or Nunavik Rotors — two companies affiliated with the airline.