Aircraft makes Yellowknife emergency landing after nose gear fault

A small plane made an emergency landing at Yellowknife Airport on Monday evening after its front landing gear malfunctioned.

The Beechcraft King Air 200 – registration C-FXMY, operated by Keewatin Air – landed at around 7:45pm with fire and ambulance crews in attendance on the ground.

The flight had earlier circled outside Yellowknife for some time as the crew worked to resolve the issue.

In the event, photos showed the aircraft landing with what looked to be partially deployed nose gear.

By the time the plane came to rest, that gear appeared to have collapsed. The aircraft looked to be otherwise intact as emergency vehicles arrived at the scene.

“After bringing the aircraft to a controlled stop crew were able to safely exit, and no injuries are reported,” Keewatin Air president Ryan DeGroot told Cabin Radio by email.

“No passengers were on board the aircraft at the time of the incident.”

DeGroot confirmed the front landing gear had not functioned properly.

Keewatin Air uses King Air 200s like the one involved in Monday’s incident for air ambulance flights.

The impact on Yellowknife Airport’s operations seemed minimal.

The airport has two runways. Inbound flights operated by Canadian North and Air Canada were seen using the other runway in the hour after the King Air’s landing.

Sarah Pruys contributed reporting.