Less than 24 hours after a chartered plane crashed in southern Nunavut leaving a 6-month-old infant dead and eight injured, investigators have located the plane’s flight data recorder.
Transportation Safety Board of Canada spokesperson Julie Leroux told The Canadian Press that authorities will be examining the electronic recorder for clues that would indicate why the plane went down.
TSB investigators are on the scene and the chief coroner is on her way, said RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Paul Soloman.
RCMP responded to the crash in the Hamlet of Sanikiluaq, located on the Belcher Islands in the southeastern corner of Hudson Bay, just after 6 p.m. Saturday evening.
The aircraft, a Fairchild Metro 3/23 twin-engine turbo prop had departed Winnipeg for Sanikiluaq in the afternoon. It crashed near the end of the runway south of the airport on Flaherty Island.
Kivalliq air, a division of Keewatin Air, had chartered the Perimeter Aviation LP aircraft, which was carrying the infant, six adult passengers and two crew members.
The passengers and two crew members, the pilot and co-pilot, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The pilot and co-pilot were taken by plane to larger medical facilities in Winnipeg, said Soloman.
The passengers remain in Sanikiluaq but there is no word on the nature of their injures, Soloman said.
Keewatin flies people from Sanikiluaq to Winnipeg and back for medical treatment, said airline president Mark Wehrle. Keewatin schedules three such trips a week to the small community of about 800 people.
Staff from Perimeter and Keewatin were heading to the community to meet with authorities and determine a cause, he said.
In addition to RCMP, the Transportation Safety Board and the Nunavut Coroner’s Office are also participating in the crash investigation.
Perimeter Aviation is based out of Winnipeg and operates over 30 aircraft. According to its website, it provides air ambulance, charters and cargo services throughout North America.
With files from The Canadian Press
