FILE - An Air Tindi employee is seen outside on the dock of their Yellowknife float base on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Rescue efforts are underway after a small aircraft crashed on Wednesday leaving 10 people stranded with injuries near a diamond mine about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife. THE CANADIAN PRESS/James Mackenzie
The military says a rescue operation is complete after a plane crash left 10 people, some with injuries, stranded overnight in a remote area of the Northwest Territories.
David Lavellee, a spokesman with 1 Canadian Air Division and Canadian Norad Region Headquarters, says everyone has been extracted from the site and taken to the nearby Diavik diamond mine.
This is a breaking news alert. A previous version of the story follows below.
Rescue efforts are underway after a small aircraft crashed on Wednesday leaving 10 people stranded with injuries near a diamond mine about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.
The spokesman of the 1 Canadian Air Division and Canadian NORAD Region Headquarters says the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Trenton launched a search-and-rescue operation after an Air Tindi Twin Otter aircraft landed about 16 kilometres southeast of Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories.
David Lavallee says a Royal Canadian Air Force Hercules aircraft flew from Winnipeg and arrived to the accident area on Wednesday evening.
He says three search-and-rescue technicians, who are highly-trained first response and survival experts, were parachuted to the accident location with supplies and equipment.
Lavallee says the plane had two crew members and eight passengers on board when it crashed and six of these people had minor injuries while two had moderate to serious injuries.
The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Trenton says it's working with Air Tindi, which operated the aircraft, on an extraction plan that includes preparing helicopters with medical teams to travel to the accident location later this morning before transporting the group to Yellowknife.
