Air North Old Crow-Dawson City flight makes emergency landing in Whitehorse
Flight was en route to Dawson City when it lost hydraulic fluid needed for retracting landing gear
An Air North flight travelling from Old Crow to Dawson City made an emergency landing at the Whitehorse airport Monday afternoon after it lost hydraulic fluid on departure.
Air North president Joe Sparling said the pilots of the Hawker Siddeley aircraft chose to divert to Whitehorse because the weather was better.
"With a hydraulic loss you only have limited use of your brakes and ... there's a possibility of having to be towed off the runway," said Sparling.
"It's a better airport to deal with that sort of thing."
Sparling said that without hydraulic pressure, there's a limited ability to retract the undercarriage of the aircraft.
The plane landed without incident, with safety vehicles standing by. There were 15 passengers and three crew on board.
Sparling said another aircraft was sent to Dawson City to retrieve the passengers bound for Whitehorse.
He says flight schedules won't be affected by the incident as a back-up aircraft will be used while the plane in today's incident is being fixed.