Will Hayworth and Zach McKillop have been identified as the two pilots who lost their lives when an Air Tindi aircraft came down near Whatì on Wednesday.
The two were the only people on board the King Air 200 when it crashed just west of Marion Lake, between Whatì and Behchokǫ̀.
Investigators are working to understand what happened. Their full report is not expected for many months, and the initial investigation is being hampered by deep snow at the remote crash site.
The pilots’ names were briefly made public via social media on Friday morning before later being reported by the CBC.
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Cabin Radio obtained the consent of the airline, which has been in close communication with both families, to reproduce their names here.
Hayworth had worked at Air Tindi for eight years and McKillop for almost three, according to information they had shared online.
On Facebook, a relative of Hayworth remembered how he had been drawn to aviation.
“You are up there flying with your grandfather in his Spitfire,” Cindy Hayworth wrote, referring to the British fighter aircraft flown during World War Two. “He inspired you to learn to soar.”
