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NNSL Photo

A Buffalo Airways DC-3 had to be helped off the runway after its landing gear failed shortly upon arrival. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

Wounded Buffalo grounded

DC-3 aircraft stranded on tarmac after landing gear fails

Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 08/03) - Alarm bells were ringing at the Yellowknife Airport yesterday morning after a Buffalo Airways DC-3 was left limping on the tarmac.

According to Bob Kelly, manager of public affairs and communication with the Department of Transportation, the plane landed safely at 7:38 a.m. on arrival from Hay River but as it taxied back to base, its front left landing gear collapsed about a hundred metres short of the hangar.

The aircraft could be seen noticeably tilting to its left side, with the wing touching the tarmac about an hour after it landed. Police and airport fire crews were summoned to the scene but no injuries were reported.

Kelly said it was too early to say what might have caused the plane's landing gear to collapse.

"That'll be determined in the course of the investigation," said Kelly.

"Our side of things are more just what happened at the airport. The cause and other elements of that would be up to the Transportation Safety Board (of Canada) to investigate."

A phone call to Buffalo Airways went unreturned but company president Joe McBryan issued a press release stating that "there was minimal damage to the aircraft and nobody was hurt."

There were four people aboard the plane, either pilots or other Buffalo employees, RCMP Sgt. Steve McVarnock told Yellowknifer.

Yesterday's incident is the third involving Buffalo aircraft in little more than a year.

In August 2002, a Buffalo DC-4 crashed at the Diavik Mine airstrip when it fell a few metres short of the runway. Last August, another Buffalo DC-4 missed the runway and crashed, this time at the Ulu mine site about 550 kilometres north of Yellowknife. No one was injured in either incident.

The DC-3 is one of the oldest commercial aircraft still in operation. Douglas Aircraft Company stopped making them in 1946 but as many as 2,000 are still flying today.