First Air 748: A wing and a prayer?

Residents of the High Arctic found a new reason to grumble about the loss of jet service through Resolute and Nanisivik, after one of First Air’s HS 748 aircraft made an unexpected landing while flying on one engine.

Last Thursday, June 15, a First Air flight from Resolute to Iqaluit overflew its regular stop at Nanisivik because of poor weather. Shortly afterwards an engine indicator lit up.

The pilots, following standard protocol, switched that motor off and landed at Hall Beach, the nearest airstrip.

Several hours later another plane arrived and took the passengers to Iqaluit.

That afternoon, Levi Barnabas, MLA for Quttiktuq, raised the issue in the House and said the Government of Nunavut isn’t doing enough to ensure the safety of airline passengers.

“It is time for the government to take an action to ensure that airline services to all communities are safe and reliable. No one in this house wants… the terror and tragedy of a plane crash,” Barnabas said.

The company has been in the bad books of High Arctic residents ever since it dropped jet service to Resolute in December.

The route is now flown with the slower HS 748,which First Air describes as an improvement, because of an increase in the number of flights from two to four a week.

But High Arctic residents have complained the smaller planes are often too crowded and end up leaving passengers behind.

And in February, a First Air flight was forced to perform an emergency landing in Nanisivik after an engine failed, which some passengers said caught on fire.

Rick Cran, a communications officer with First Air, reassured passengers that the planes are safe.

“We comply with the highest level of standards in our maintenance program,” he said. “They’re safe.”

The HS 748 is still used in many countries. Most were manufactured in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.