A small airplane carrying 22 passengers and three crew members crashed after it took off in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, police said.
A number of people suffered injuries, with some serious enough to require air ambulance services, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said.
The West Wind Aviation ATR-42 went down near the remote Fond-du-Lac airport at around 6:15pm on December 13, RCMP said.
A West Wind Aviation ATR-42 plane carrying 22 passengers and three crew members crashed on December 13
The plane was flying from Fond-Du-Lac to Stony Rapids in the remote northern reaches of Saskatchewan, Canada
Passenger Arson Fern (left) described how it took 30 minutes for the passengers to open an emergency exit door, after which the passengers exited the aircraft one-by-one. His son, Arson Jr (center) has been put in a medically induced coma after he underwent surgery for his wounds. His wife Janey (right) was also on the plane
Passenger Arson Fern told CBC News that the plane started dipping.
‘I yelled in our language, in Dene, I said: “We’re gonna crash! The plane’s gonna crash!”‘ he told CBC.
He described how it took 30 minutes for the passengers to open an emergency exit door, after which the passengers exited the aircraft one-by-one.
Fern’s son, Arson Jr, has been put into a medically induced coma after surgery he needed due to his wounds.
Fern told the Huffington Post that his son was ‘all pinned down’ and was the last one off the plane.
The flight normally takes 20 minutes and connects two remote towns that are not connected via road
The Canadian Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused the crash
He suffered a broken pelvis, a collapsed lung and a damaged artery.
ATR, a joint venture between Airbus and Italian company Leonardo, is the world’s largest maker of regional turboprop planes.
There was no explosion or fire when the turboprop plane crashed, police said.
The plane’s wreckage path was at least 800 feet long, CTV News Saskatoon reports.
The Canadian Transportation Safety Board is looking into the cause of the accident.
Pictured is a stock photograph of a West Wind Aviation ATR-42
Investigators will listen to audio from two recorders that were on the plane to try to piece together what happened.
Fern told the Huffington Post that the plane ripped open.
Fond-Du-Lac, at 59 degrees latitude, is exceptionally remote. There are no roads connecting the settlement to Canada’s metropolitan centers farther south.
The flight between Fond-Du-Lac and Stony Rapids, where the flight was heading, only takes 20 minutes.
Despite the proximity of the two towns, there is not a road that connects them.