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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife man is recovering from minor injuries after being struck by an Air Canada Jazz plane while it was taxiing at the Yellowknife Airport terminal Sunday.

At about 1:30 p.m, an Air Canada Jazz plane was approaching the terminal after landing when one of its wings struck a Canadian North worker, said Earl Blacklock, spokesperson with the GNWT Department of Transportation.

Dr. Camille Haddad, a family physician from New Brunswick, was on the Air Canada Jazz flight from Edmonton and came to the injured worker's aid.

Haddad said he saw two workers on the tarmac as the plane, which seats 50 people, was coming to a stop. The wing then appeared to hit one of the men in the forehead, he said, and the man fell backwards and hit the back of his head on the ground.

Asked to attend to the injured worker before other medical personnel could arrive, Haddad said the man was conscious and able to move freely.

"He was conscious, he was alert and talking," said Haddad. "He had a huge hematoma (a bad bruise) on the left side of his forehead and a cut. It was bleeding. We laid him on his back and secured his neck."

The man, whose identity was not made public, was transported to Stanton Territorial Hospital and discharged later that day, GNWT Department of Health and Social Services spokesperson Damien Healy told Yellowknifer.

The incident has resulted in a multi-party inquiry that will include both airline companies involved, said Blacklock.

"It's going to be a number of groups that take a look at this, each from their own angle," he said.

Both Canadian North and Air Canada Jazz confirmed that they are investigating the incident.

"We will be fully engaged on following up on this regrettable incident," said Debra Williams, manager of corporate communications for Air Canada Jazz.

"We'll be working closely with all that have been concerned with it to determine what transpired."

The Transportation Safety Board is also looking into the incident on a cursory level, said Mike Tomm, operations investigator for the TSB in Edmonton.

"The ramp attendant, by our definition, sustained minor injuries, so we've cataloged it and we're getting information from the operator about what happened there, and that's about as far as we're going to go with it," he said.

This is the second time a Canadian North ramp worker has been struck by an aircraft at the Yellowknife Airport in the past several months.

On Feb. 13, a 28-year-old Yellowknife man was working his second shift as a Canadian North ramp worker when he was seriously injured after being struck in the head by a spinning propeller of a Dash-8 Canadian North aircraft.

The man struck by the aircraft wing last Sunday was also a new Canadian North employee and had been on the job for less than one week, although he had completed the requisite training, said Steve Hankirk, vice-president of operations, charters and cargo with the airline.

"We do take it extremely seriously," said Hankirk.

Common factors in the two incidents are being examined, he added. The investigation remained open as of press time.

Tomm said he considers the two incidents different in nature. The February incident occurred during a night shift and the worker came into contact with the airplane he was servicing, while Sunday's incident occurred during daylight hours and involved an aircraft from a different company.

However, there are similarities between the two incidents, Tomm acknowledged.

"In either one of them, the attendant's attentiveness is likely a key issue," he said.

Blacklock agreed that the two incidents occurred under different circumstances, but added that two airplane-employee collisions within the same calendar year is disconcerting.

"I don't think you can equate the two but, you're right, it's of concern that we've now had two person-airplane impacts within the same year. This isn't something that's normal so we definitely want to take a look at, I think everyone wants to take a look at how we can avoid these things in the future," he said.

- with files from Lyndsay Herman

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