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Yellowknife (July 04/01) - It was a close call for an Air Tindi Twin Otter en route to a BHP exploration camp early Monday morning.
An aircraft landing that appeared to be on track got spun off the rails by a sudden gust of wind.
The Air Tindi Twin Otter was delivering workers from Yellowknife to a BHP exploration camp 280 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife Monday morning.
None of the eight passengers and crew aboard were hurt, though the plane suffered nose damage.
"He was just coming to a slowdown and the wind caught his left wing and spun the plane around," said Teri Arychuk, operations manager for Air Tindi.
"It swung around and it's kind of sitting on the side of the hill. It's all in one piece."
The plane was landing on a 20-metre high esker running along one side of the lake, Arychuk said. It was the original airstrip used for the Ekati mine.
Transportation Safety Board investigator John Pearson said an investigation of the incident has yet to be wrapped up. He said it will consist of interviews but not a visit to the site.
Arychuk said the plane will be repaired at the site and flown back to Yellowknife. As of Tuesday morning, there was no estimate of how much it would cost to repair the damage.
