Air Tindi's Cessna Caravans resume flights, with restrictions

Air Tindi says its Cessna Caravan airplanes will now only be flown in clear weather after one of its Caravans made a forced landing on Great Slave Lake three weeks ago because of severe icing.

Five passengers and a pilot were on board the flight to Fort Simpson from Yellowknife the morning of Nov. 20. After the forced landing, the plane was evacuated and the six waited about four hours for the weather to clear before helicopters could pick them up.

The airline grounded its Cessna Caravans for two weeks.

"It wasn't the time to be having the aircraft up in the air until we really understood what had happened and get a feel for whether we could operate safely going forward," said Al Martin, president of Air Tindi.

Now the Caravans are operating with restrictions. Martin says if there's any chance of icing — even if it's just a cloudy day without snow — the Caravans won't be flying.

Air Tindi currently has three Caravans in its fleet. Martin says in the past week they've only flown three or four days because the weather hasn't been good.

Martin says the restrictions will stay in place until the Transportation Safety Board's investigation of the forced landing is complete.