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The King Air 200, as seen here from a picture taken in 2002 from Australia is commonly used as an air ambulance and a commuter plane in remote areas. An exit can be found on the rear left of the aircraft. - photo taken by Peter Schuller

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A search is underway for a man who jumped out of an airplane at 23,000 feet while it was en route from Yellowknife to Cambridge Bay on Wednesday afternoon.

The 20-year-old resident of Cambridge Bay, who has not been identified, was one of two passengers on an Adlair Aviation charter flight.

According to an RCMP press statement, at 4:30 p.m. MDT the plane's crew called in an emergency situation about an unruly passenger on the flight. Cambridge Bay RCMP met the twin propeller King Air 200 on arrival and learned the passenger had opened the exit door about 150 km southwest of Cambridge Bay and jumped out of the aircraft. The two-person crew had tried to stop him but was unable to do so.

Despite the decompression of the cabin at that altitude, the crew was able to safely land the plane in Cambridge Bay without injury to its members or the second passenger, a woman.

Adlair owner Paul Laserich declined to comment on the incident except to say the pilots are holding up well and he and everyone at the company are very saddened by the incident.

"Our condolences, thoughts and prayers go out to the family (of the fallen passenger)," said Laserich.

"We've been in Cambridge Bay for the last 35 years, and this kind of thing has never happened before."

The King Air 200 is a common aircraft in aviation, and is often used to fly through remote country. The plane seats up to 12 passengers and has an exit door on the rear left side of the aircraft. RCMP in Cambridge Bay is co-ordinating with the hamlet's search and rescue personnel to look for the missing man. The man jumped over an area which is difficult to access by land so the searching has to be done mostly by air. The search was delayed by poor visibility and didn't start until yesterday.

A spokesperson with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said the RCMP is leading the investigation because a probable suicide is involved.

When asked about the difficulties of opening a pressurized plane door in flight, the spokesperson declined to speculated, adding it was a question better answered by Transport Canada or the Federal Aviation Authority of the United States, neither of which could be contacted by press time.

- with files from Mike W. Bryant