The Transportation Safety Board says investigators are forming a plan to recover key evidence from a fatal plane crash near Fort Simpson once an evacuation order for the village is lifted.
Three people were killed in the crash around 50 km outside Fort Simpson on June 24. The aircraft had been working on wildfire FS009, located west of the village.
The TSB had already said the Buffalo Airways Rockwell International 690C’s left wing, horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizer could not be recovered in an initial search before another wildfire near Fort Simpson forced the postponement of its investigation.
In an update published on its website this week, the TSB set out the information it has to date and the progress its investigation has made. The safety board’s investigations can take many months or years, depending on the complexity of events. This is a Class 3 investigation, the TSB said, which generally take from a year to 18 months.
The aircraft was providing tactical support for a water bomber when it came down, the TSB stated. The safety board has described what took place as in-flight breakup followed by collision with terrain, but said it had not yet reached any conclusions about why those events occurred.
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The TSB also updated its online registry to include photographs of the incident. Cabin Radio has elected not to publish images of the crash site.
“The accident site is located in muskeg with ponds, small lakes, and rivers nearby,” the TSB stated. “There was an active forest fire in the immediate vicinity of the accident site.”
The aircraft had been flying for two and a half hours that day at the time of the incident.
“After approaching the fire from the southwest, the aircraft completed two full orbits of the fire and the in-flight breakup occurred at the start of the third orbit,” investigators stated.
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“During the orbiting of the fire, the aircraft was operating at ground speeds between 141 and 199 knots and at heights from approximately 50 to 1,000 feet above ground level.
“The technical and maintenance files for the aircraft have been received, and a review of those records is in progress.”
A salvage plan is being developed “for when the area is deemed safe to enter,” the TSB stated.
“Once the aircraft has been recovered and the left wing, horizontal stabilizer, and vertical stabilizer have been recovered, an analysis can begin on what led to the in-flight breakup.”
The NWT’s wildfire agency on Wednesday named two of the three people involved in the crash.
NWT Fire said air attack officer Olivier Lamy and air attack officer trainee Ryan Beck lost their lives in the incident.
Ryan “was happiest in the bush, whether cutting pads, slaying on the nozzle, camping out on many fire lines and deployments to various NWT regions and Alberta,” the agency stated.
Olivier “was fearless, with a sense of humour and wry smile that could cut through the stress and set everyone at ease on even the toughest fires,” the agency’s tribute read.
