SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Staff and passengers of Air Tindi breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after a bomb threat causing an evacuation earlier that day was deemed a hoax.

Peter Arychuk, president and CEO of Air Tindi, and Jackie Burke, scheduled service manager for the company, speak to RCMP late Thursday morning. More than 40 people were evacuated from an Air Tindi hangar after a bomb threat was called in just after 11 a.m. After scouring the hangar, RCMP found no suspicious packages. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

More than 40 passengers, staff and crew huddled in small groups outside the Air Tindi hangar when RCMP showed up late Thursday morning. Police spoke with Air Tindi president and CEO Peter Arychuk and others outside the hangar before ushering everyone from the parking lot to the other side of Bristol Avenue.

RCMP responded to a call at approximately 11:30 a.m. about a possible bomb at the Air Tindi hangar near the airport.

In an interview late Thursday afternoon, Arychuk said his business received a call from a man about a bomb somewhere in their building.

"This was the first time anything like this has ever happened in all our years of existence," Arychuk said of the airline, which has been in operation since 1988.

He added that their emergency procedures plan to deal with situations like this was a success.

"It went off very well," he said.

Another media outlet reported six RCMP officers searched the hangar but found nothing of a suspicious nature. A bomb squad from Edmonton was put on call around noon in case they were needed to defuse any form of explosive device, but never needed to make the emergency trip.

Some Air Tindi flights bound for Yellowknife were diverted from the Air Tindi hangar to other parts of the airport just after the bomb threat was received while other flights out of the airport were not affected. Air Tindi ended up behind schedule Thursday by about an hour and a half to two hours, according to Arychuk.

Sgt. Wayne Norris, spokesperson for the RCMP, was unavailable at press time.