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Canadian North flight 444 returns to the Yellowknife terminal followed by emergency response vehicles. - Ben Morgan/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A likely bird strike forced a passenger jet to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at the Yellowknife Airport yesterday.

On board were a crew of four and 76 passengers including a group of reporters on their way to Inuvik to cover Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Northern tour. Western Arctic political rivals NDP incumbent Dennis Bevington and Conservative candidate Brendan Bell were also on the flight.

"It sounded like a balloon popping just as the plane's nose left the ground," said Danny Rodgers, a passenger on Canadian North flight 444.

He and some of his fellow passengers felt a "little bit of a jolt" as the 737 they were traveling on took-off from Yellowknife airport.

Rodgers said about 15 minutes after takeoff, "the pilot announced that personnel on the ground wanted to examine the plane."

He said the pilot began circling the airport for about 40 minutes to burn fuel.

"They wanted to get back to landing weight, is how they explained it," said Rogers.

He praised the crew for keeping passengers informed of the situation and said everyone on board the aircraft appeared calm.

Canadian North spokesperson Kelly Kaylo said an early investigation indicates the incident was a probable bird strike. She said it's too early to know for sure, however.

"The aircraft originated from Edmonton and stopped in Yellowknife en route to Norman Wells and it was then moving on to Inuvik," said Kaylo.

Lee Stroman, manager of safety and security at the Yellowknife Airport, said initially there was concern that the airplane had a tire problem.

Before landing back in Yellowknife the plane did a fly-by past the airport tower for a visual inspection.

"That's pretty standard in these types of situations where we have a tire problem but in this case the tire appeared to be fine," said Stroman.

"There was no apparent visible reason for the smoke or the shuddering the aircraft had reported earlier, so the decision was made to let the aircraft land, which it did without incident."

Yellowknife fire department responded to the call as well.

"We have mutual aid procedures that we activate, especially in an event like this one where we have a large aircraft with a large number of people on it - we certainly work in co-operation with them in those types of events."

"The landing was pretty smooth," said Rodgers.

The flight was cancelled but later in the day Canadian North chartered two local carriers from Yellowknife to accommodate passengers and take them to their destinations in Norman Wells and Inuvik.

City council voted earlier this year to scare away birds attracted to the city dump after concerns were raised by Transport Canada that the landfill was too close to the airport.