An aircraft of the same type which crashed near Whatì this week made an emergency landing in Sachs Harbour on Thursday afternoon.
A preliminary incident report filed with Transport Canada states a Kenn Borek Air flight from Sachs Harbour to Inuvik reported engine trouble before turning around and landing safely.
The airline told Cabin Radio the issue had been traced to a faulty indicator in the cockpit, and the crew of two had returned to Sachs Harbour as a precautionary measure.
No passengers were on board, the airline said.
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“What happened was there was a false indication in the cockpit,” said Brian Crocker, Kenn Borek Air’s vice-president of operations.
“The flight crew followed procedure and conducted a precautionary shutdown of that engine, and returned to Sachs Harbour for maintenance and inspection.”
No concern was subsequently identified with the engine itself, Crocker stressed, acknowledging this is a “sensitive week” for air travel in the Northwest Territories.
The aircraft affected was a Beechcraft King Air 200, as was the Air Tindi plane which came down outside Whatì on Wednesday – an incident in which the two crew members on board died.
Separately, another King Air 200 operated by Guardian Flight disappeared in Alaska on Tuesday. The air ambulance is presumed to have crashed, and the owners said they were searching for the bodies of the three people aboard.
