Firefighting plane crashes in Northwest Territories with three aboard
Fixed-wing Turbo Commander supporting wildfire suppression near Fort Simpson; Transportation Safety Board investigating.
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A firefighting aircraft crashed Wednesday near Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories with three people aboard, officials said Thursday.
The fixed-wing Turbo Commander 960 Bird Dog 104 was supporting an air tanker group fighting fire FS009-26, which was discovered about 55 km west of Fort Simpson. NWT Fire confirmed the incident as a crash in a social media update just after 9 p.m. Thursday.
The RCMP were at the site in the evening as part of a coordinated response with Emergency Coordination Centre to launch an investigation and confirm the status of the aircraft's occupants. The Transportation Safety Board has taken the lead in the investigation.
NWT Fire deployed critical incident stress management specialists to fire crew bases to help staff process the events. Further updates are pending.
