Yellowknife (May 11/05) - Smoking muffins forced an emergency landing at Yellowknife's airport for a First Air plane the morning of May 6.

On Monday afternoon, First Air representatives could not say exactly how the muffins caused the smoke.

"We don't know what caused the muffins to burn yet. We're still looking into that," said Tracy Beeman, marketing director for First Air.

The 737 jet was eight minutes into its flight to Rankin Inlet, at 10:02 a.m., when officials say smoke was detected.

By 10:10 a.m., the plane was back on the Yellowknife runway. Twenty-four passengers and four First Air staff members were evacuated.

A school bus brought the group from the runway to the Yellowknife airport fire department.

'Now where do I go?'

Passenger James Stewart was on his way home to Iqaluit.

Nobody panicked and the situation was handled professionally, Stewart said while having a cigarette with his fellow passengers about an hour after the plane landed.

But Stewart was confused when stepping out of the emergency exit onto the wing of the plane.

"I got out there and I said 'now where do I go?'" he said, and then laughed.

One woman sustained minor injuries while sliding down the plane's lowered wings, which act as the emergency exit.

This is First Air's second emergency landing in a month. The previous emergency was a Hercules carrying freight between Kugluktuk and Yellowknife.

While waiting to hear about alternate travel arrangements, a number of stranded passengers contacted loved ones.

"I've had my first emergency landing, and hopefully my last," said one woman with a laugh into a pay phone.

Most passengers stayed over in Yellowknife, and the plane was back in service by 10 a.m. the next day.

Transport Canada, and the Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the incident. So far the aircraft does not seem have had any mechanical failures.