Jan. 24 (UPI) — An airplane transporting an unspecified number of people to a diamond mine in northern Canada has crashed, resulting in deaths, officials said.
The plane crashed Tuesday near the Northwest Territories’ Fort Smith, a town of some 2,600 people along Alberta’s northern border. The local health and social services authority said it activated its mass casualty protocol at 8:50 a.m.
The territories’ chief coroner, Garth Eggenberger, released a statement confirming fatalities.
“We can confirm there are fatalities but we will not be providing any additional information pending next of kin notifications,” it said.
British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto said the plane was en route to its Diavik Diamond Mine, located about 125 miles south of the Arctic Circle, when it crashed with “a number” of its employees on board.
“We are absolutely devastated by this news and offering our full support to our people and the community who are grieving today,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said in a statement.
“We are working closely with authorities and will help in any way we can with their efforts to find out exactly what has happened.”
The involved aircraft has been identified by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada as a British Aerospace Jetstream registered to Northwestern Air Lease, which operates out of Fort Smith and provides daily flights and chartered services for Alberta and the Northwest territories,
The company’s website states the plane can carry 19 passengers.
A TSB team of investigators has been deployed to the scene and is gathering information and assessing the incident, the federal agency said in a statement.
Premier R.J. Simpson said the impact of the crash is being felt across the entire territory.
“The people we lost were not just passengers on a flight; they were neighbours, colleagues, friends and loved ones. Their stories and contributions to our communities will not be forgotten,” he said in a statement.
The incident comes after an Air Tindi plane crashed near the mine last month. All 10 people aboard survived, though two suffered what the CBC reported as moderate to serious injuries.