Hall Beach (Jun 26/06) - A First Air flight bound for Iqaluit from Resolute endured some tense moments in the air above Nanisivik last week.

Bad weather prevented the flight from landing at Nanisivik for its usual stopover. Then, the Hawker-Siddeley HS 748 airplane's engine warning light came on.

A Hawker-Siddeley aircraft like this one was forced to land in Hall Beach June 15 after its engine light went on. Sixteen passengers on their way to Iqaluit from Resolute were delayed for two and a half hours as a result. - photo courtesy of First Air

"Whenever the emergency indicator light comes on, (the pilots) treat it as a full emergency,"said Rick Cran, First Air's manager of marketing and communications.

The flight diverted to the nearest airport, in Hall Beach, where 16 passengers were loaded onto another aircraft which arrived in Iqaluit two and a half hours behind schedule.

The incident raised the hackles of Quttituq MLA Levi Barnabas, who brought up the issue in the legislature.

"The Hawker-Siddeley aircraft flew on only one engine for more than an hour."

It isn't clear if Barnabas was on the flight, and repeated phone calls to his offices weren't returned.

Cran couldn't confirm if one of the plane's two propeller engines stopped working during the flight, but said the plane was back in service the same day.

Cran also didn't know how old the plane was, but the Hawker-Siddeley brand disappeared with a merger in 1978, according to the International Directory of Civil Aircraft. The HS models remain in widespread use.