Plane goes down near Rankin Inlet; no injuries
Passenger, two crew members were on board Kudlik Aviation flight, says airline
Three people are safe after a Kudlik Aviation flight went down near Rankin Inlet early Tuesday morning. (File photo by David Venn)
Updated Tuesday, May 7 at 4:25 p.m.
All three people onboard a Kudlik Aviation flight that made a forced landing early Tuesday morning near Rankin Inlet are safe, the airline said.
The plane took off from Chesterfield Inlet at 10:45 a.m. but went down about 10 minutes later due to a “technical issue,” the airline’s operations manager Jean Labrecque said.
Two crew members and one passenger were onboard, but they sustained no injuries when the plane went down, Labrecque said. All three passengers were able to walk off the plane and onto the ice.
Labrecque said the airline is working with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to investigate what caused the plane to go down.
Liam MacDonald, a spokesperson for the transportation safety board, said the aircraft is a Pilatus PC-12/47 registered to Kudlik Aviation.
“This was not a crash, rather, the aircraft conducted a forced landing on the ice approximately five nautical miles east of Rankin Inlet airport,” he said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
“It is too early to say what the causes and contributing factors of this occurrence might be.”
MacDonald said the board is still gathering information and assessing the situation before deciding if a full investigation is needed.
Note: This article was updated to include information from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Might be a good idea to have it moved soon otherwise might get vandalized
Airlines should have hangars up north. It would probably help with climate change. These airlines spray so much antifreeze onto jets. And where does the fluid go to? Big hint. It drains onto our land. There has to be a better way to handle wings and windows from frosting up. Like what? Heated windows and wings maybe. Maybe even spray hot ocean water onto the aircraft. Anything but antifreeze.
“Maybe even spray hot ocean water onto the aircraft” ?????
Spraying highly corrosive salt water onto an aircraft is great way to destroy it.
The frequency of structural failures on saltwater operated floatplanes due to corrosion is already a significant safety issue.
I’m rebuilding a water bomber today, that is supposed to be designed to carry and operate on water, but the amount of corrosion we are finding is making preparing the aircraft for flight very expensive, and this aircraft operates from “fresh” water.
How does the presence of hangars impact anything?
The aircraft still have to takeoff and land outdoors. De-icing is still required at airports that have dozens of hangars.