Air Tindi to bring damaged plane back to Yellowknife this week

Air Tindi expects to transport its damaged Cessna Caravan back to Yellowknife this week.

The plane made an emergency landing on Great Slave Lake in the early morning of November 20 due to icing.

All five passengers and the pilot escaped unharmed, but the impact of landing on the ice ripped the aircraft's undercarriage and damaged a wing.

Al Martin is the airline's president. He says the plan is to remove the wings and sling the plane back by helicopter. He says crews moved equipment to the site Sunday and will be working to dismantle parts of the aircraft so it can be airlifted back.

He expects the recovery process to take three to four days. That includes cleaning up any debris in the area and making sure no fuel is left behind.

Martin said last week that three other similar aircraft in its fleet will be grounded until they have more information about what happened.

"It's a precaution because we don't know all the details of what's happened yet," he said. 

A team with the Transportation Safety Board is still in Yellowknife.They will be conducting an investigation into what happened and examining the aircraft. They also plan to interview the passengers and pilot.