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Wreckage of the Arctic Sunwest Twin Otter on McDonald Drive in Old Town on Thursday afternoon. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife residents watched in horror early yesterday afternoon as an Arctic Sunwest Twin Otter floatplane crashed near a busy Old Town street, leaving both pilots dead.

Debbie Doody, owner of the Dancing Moose Cafe, located at 3505 McDonald Dr. directly across the street from the crash site near the shore of Yellowknife Bay, said the plane was heading across the bay toward Pilot's Monument on an angle when it crashed around 1:15 p.m.

"The plane came from the lake and just skirted this building, skirted our house, and crashed right there across the street," said Doody, who was in the kitchen cooking for four customers at the time.

"It crashed into that building there and it looks like it did a belly-flop, like flipped over, because now it's facing the other direction."

The plane crashed between a condo complex and the Aurora Geosciences office building on McDonald Drive.

National media are reporting that the plane had touched down on the water and taken off again before crushing.

"We gave rescuers all kinds of sheets and blankets. Our fire extinguishers, too," said Doody, pointing to one by the front door of the restaurant and her bed and breakfast.

Nine people were aboard the ill-fated flight: two pilots, three senior staff from Avalon Rare Metals and four Avalon investors, according to Don Bubar, CEO of the rare metals company. The plane was returning from Thor Lake, about 5 km north of the Hearne Channel on Great Slave Lake, and about 100 km southeast of Yellowknife.

"We were taking visitors in for a site tour, for a day trip, and the accident happened on the return from their site tour."

The seven passengers were taken to Stanton Territorial Hospital.

One patient was medevaced to Edmonton with a back injury, said Kay Lewis, CEO of the hospital, at 3:30 p.m. yesterday. She said there was potential for another to be medevaced, as well, depending on the results of a CT scan. Another was heading to the operating room for a broken femur. The remaining four passengers were in stable condition, she said.

"I'm anticipating that given the shock that all will be admitted, but the more serious ones are being dealt with immediately," said Lewis.

Bubar confirmed that David Swisher, vice-president of Avalon, was on the plane, but said he wasn't ready to name the remaining passengers.

"David did phone me from the hospital to reassure me that he was OK and the other passengers were OK, too.

"They've suffered some injuries, but nothing life threatening, is my understanding of it."

Names of the other passengers and the deceased will not be released until all of their families have been notified, said Lewis.

Firefighters, RCMP and paramedics were quickly on scene after the crash, with residents in the area helping to remove people from the snarled wreckage of the twin otter.

Amid littered debris and at a distance from downed power lines, paramedics performed CPR on some of the victims.

Dave Beckwith was installing windows on Latham Island when the plane crashed. When he got to the site, he saw a woman in tears.

"She was looking for her fiance. I was comforting her, trying to help her find her fiance. We heard later that her fiance was taken to the hospital," said Beckwith.

Sam Roland lives two doors down from the crash site, he was in his living room watching TV when he saw the plane out the window.

"I saw the plane coming in. I don't know exactly what happened, but it was flying low and then the next thing, I saw the power lines were going down and then I heard a loud smash. We ran outside ... and the wires were coming down and there were people screaming," said Roland.

Nathan Wilson said he saw the plane come down on an angle and "one of the engines kicked out" before it crashed.

Tony Procure, owner of TJ's Nut Hut, started directing traffic as soon as he heard what happened.

"I heard the rev of the engine and my power went out. I went outside to see what was going on. The power line was gone, someone came up in a canoe and said that plane just went down. I was thinking if it happened there, this is the only turn around on this end of town. So I just started to direct traffic to the parking lot so EMR could get in," said Procure.

"A terrible wind like today, it's got to be tough to fly in."

The plane took down power and phone lines. By 4 p.m. NorthwesTel had Internet, cable and video services restored, while land-line telephone services remained down.

The power outage effected Old Town, School Draw Avenue, Ndilo and Latham Island. By 5 p.m., 12 customers in Old Town remained without power. Duane Morgan, spokesperson for Northland Utilities, said Transport Canada would have the area cleared by 9 p.m. yesterday evening, and would then allow utility workers on site to restore power to the remaining homes. He expected that would be complete by 12 a.m. Friday morning.

Chris Krepski, a spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said two investigators will arrive in Yellowknife to begin work today.

Officials at Arctic Sunwest, a charter company based out of Yellowknife and owned by RTL-Robinson Enterprises Ltd, declined to comment.

Arctic Sunwest has had one other fatal crash in the past four years.

In January 2007, an Arctic Sunwest Cessna 185 crashed en route to Blachford Lake Lodge, killing the pilot and two passengers. That crash was blamed on bad weather conditions, a heavy plane load and a GPS miscalculation.

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