KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE - Neither of the two people on board a Summit Air flight was injured after the plane made an emergency landing in Kugluktuk on Aug. 1.

The Shorts SC7 plane had taken off from the Hope Bay mining camp en route to Cambridge Bay when it experienced engine failure during the flight, said Shawn Maley, the director of Nunavut airports.

"It was just a little over halfway to Cambridge Bay when the pilot lost an engine," he said.

The crew shut down the engine and declared an emergency, said Maley. He added the plane was rerouted to Kugluktuk as the weather was better there than in Cambridge Bay. Kugluktuk activated its emergency response to an inbound aircraft, with airport staff, the RCMP, fire department responding and the municipality and health centre notified.

"The plane ended up landing safely and taxied off under its own steam and everything turned out OK," said Maley. "I have no information as to the cause of the engine shutdown."

Summit Air flew in replacement parts and maintenance personnel to fix the plane, which left the next day after being fixed, he said.

"Sometimes they (emergencies) involve engine failure, sometimes there is smoke in the cockpit, sometimes they're warning lights for landing gear. It doesn't happen a lot but it does happen from time to time," he said. "The procedures that were followed for this were the way we want them."

Don Leblanc, the senior administrative officer in Kugluktuk, was one of the approximately dozen hamlet staff who responded when notified of the incoming plane in distress.

"Everybody responded as they were requested to," he said. "They came together as a team. Should anything have happened, I am sure they would have handled it well."

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