Whisper
April 17th, 2009, 05:48 AM
CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut–The aviation community in the North is abuzz with praise for a flight crew who managed to land a small plane in Nunavut after a distraught man opened a door at 23,000 feet and jumped.
The 20-year-old man's grief-stricken friends and family gathered yesterday in the tiny community of Cambridge Bay to try to cope with his death, wondering why he jumped – an act that forced the crew of the Adlair Aviation King Air 200 to make an emergency landing with its door open, putting their lives at risk.
The pilot declared an on-board emergency Wednesday as the cabin of the plane quickly depressurized, filling the cockpit with a roar of frigid Arctic air. The plane, a twin-engine turboprop, managed to safely put down with its door wide open at Cambridge Bay.
The man, who has not been identified by RCMP, was a member of a prominent family in Cambridge Bay. He was unemployed and in a common-law relationship.
"He was a spirited individual and this is a big loss," said family friend Wilf Wilcox.
Paul Laserich, manager of the small family-owned airline, said he was "quite proud" of the two pilots.
Although the flight from Cambridge Bay to Yellowknife had been a medical flight bringing patients south, the return flight was not, said Alex Campbell, Nunavut's deputy minister of health.
Campbell said the young man was not under the care of Nunavut Health and Social Services when he jumped.
The 20-year-old man's grief-stricken friends and family gathered yesterday in the tiny community of Cambridge Bay to try to cope with his death, wondering why he jumped – an act that forced the crew of the Adlair Aviation King Air 200 to make an emergency landing with its door open, putting their lives at risk.
The pilot declared an on-board emergency Wednesday as the cabin of the plane quickly depressurized, filling the cockpit with a roar of frigid Arctic air. The plane, a twin-engine turboprop, managed to safely put down with its door wide open at Cambridge Bay.
The man, who has not been identified by RCMP, was a member of a prominent family in Cambridge Bay. He was unemployed and in a common-law relationship.
"He was a spirited individual and this is a big loss," said family friend Wilf Wilcox.
Paul Laserich, manager of the small family-owned airline, said he was "quite proud" of the two pilots.
Although the flight from Cambridge Bay to Yellowknife had been a medical flight bringing patients south, the return flight was not, said Alex Campbell, Nunavut's deputy minister of health.
Campbell said the young man was not under the care of Nunavut Health and Social Services when he jumped.