Yellowknife (Aug 21/06) - To Shawna Cook, 17-year-old Farrah Grandjambe was "an angel on Earth."

They were friends since the fourth grade, but now the Norman Wells teen has to say goodbye to her friend.

Farrah Grandjame, left, is seen here in a picture from her website. Alfred Masuzumi, right, was an artist and father from Fort Good Hope.- photo courtesy of Camilla MacEachern / NWT artists database. Below, Gordon Macleod unloads cargo from a North-Wright plane in November 2004. - NNSL file photo

Grandjambe was one of six people killed when a North-Wright Airways Cessna 337 went down Aug. 16 on a flight between Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells.

"I lost a really good friend," said Cook, her grief audible over the telephone. "She was a very caring, lovable person."

Also killed were pilot Gordon Macleod, originally from Calgary, and passengers Gary Grandjambe, 24, artist Alfred Masuzumi, both of Fort Good Hope, and Kenny Stewart and Judith Pierrot, both from Tulita.

Adding to the tragedy, some of the passengers were leaving Good Hope after attending the Aug. 12 funerals for two men who died in a boat accident on the Mackenzie River.

The plane took off at 12:30 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Norman Wells 45 minutes later. It was reported missing at 2 p.m.

According to North-Wright operations manager David James, company aircraft, emergency medical transport planes and helicopters stationed in the area began the search.

Within minutes, he said, a signal from the missing aircraft's emergency locator transmitter was picked up.

RCMP officers reached the scene at about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday and found the Cessna down on the side of a mountain about 50 km from Fort Good Hope, near Mount Effie.

Sgt. Larry O'Brien, media liaison for the RCMP in Yellowknife, said it's too early to say why the plane crashed.

He said two investigators from the Edmonton bureau of the Transport Safety Board were to fly North and begin their probe.

O'Brien said they will search the wreckage once they arrive, and try to determine if the crash was the result of mechanical failure, weather or some other cause.

"It's basically their investigation now," he said.

Jonathan Lee, Western Regional Manager of the Transport Safety Board of Canada, had little to say, Friday.

"We are still in the information gathering stage."

It usually takes a year for the TSB to release a report on aircraft incidents.

According to James, weather was blustery when the plane went down.

"There were showers and strong winds," he said.

Among those mourning are Vicky and Andrew Stewart, of Fort Good Hope, whose son Kenny died in the plane.

Vicky says he was visiting from Tulita, and was killed returning home.

"He has a wife and children in Tulita. Two daughters and a son," she said.

Jacqueline Masuzumi, a first cousin to Alfred Masuzumi, said the timing of the crash has only added to the community's grief.

"Everyone's suffering so much right now," she said. "We almost wonder - what did we do so wrong, to deserve this?"

Masuzumi said her cousin Alfred was a devoted single father, who struggled to raise two adopted children after losing his wife to cancer a few years ago.

"He was an artist and a storyteller. He had a couple of books going. He was a very devoted Catholic.

"We used to see him bicycling around all the time in Fort Good Hope. He would come and help the sisters deliver communion every Sunday," Jacqueline Masuzumi said. "The whole community is devastated."

North-Wright's James, said the pilot was is his 20s. He described him as a serious and reliable airman.

He said Macleod had been employed by North-Wright for two-and-a-half years.

"There has never been anything like this in the history of the company," he said.

While owners and co-workers continue to mourn and wonder what happened, North-Wright will continue to keep its 20 planes flying. It runs the only scheduled service to most Sahtu communities.

"We will no doubt be flying relatives to the funerals so they can mourn," he said.

This is the second time in about five years that a plane has gone down and killed all aboard in the area.

On Dec. 31, 2001, an Ursus Aviation Cessna 172 flew into the side of a mountain, killing all four aboard.

In that incident, Hay River fiddler Kole Crook, 27, sisters Ashley and Lindsay Andrew, 18 and 11, and pilot Dana Wentzel, 23, died during a6 flight from Fort Good Hope to Tulita.

According to the Transportation Safety Board report, the pilot in the 2001 crash took off despite warnings from other pilots and encountered icing conditions "for which the aircraft was neither equipped nor certified."