Investigators have recovered the black boxes from the Boeing 737-200 that crashed in Nunavut on the weekend, though they don't yet know what caused the tragic accident that claimed 12 lives.
The black boxes containing voice and flight data from the downed plane were recovered and flown back to Ottawa. But Transportation Safety Board officials said Monday that it will be several days before investigators can fully review the data from the final moments of the flight.
"We won't know what they will tell us and they won't tell us until we get access to them," Mark Clitsome, a director of investigations at the TSB, said Monday.
A full report on the crash could take a year or longer to complete.
Twelve people died after the plane operated by First Air crashed into a small hill in Resolute Bay, Nunavut on Saturday. Only three people survived the crash.
The RCMP released the names of the victims Monday.
They are:
- Martin Bergmann
- Cheyenne Eckalook
- Steve Girouard
- Lise Lamoureux
- Raymond Pitre
- Randolph Reid
- Michael Rideout
- Chesley Tibbo
- Blair Rutherland, captain
- David Hare, co-captain
- Ute Merritt, flight attendant
- Ann Marie Chassie, flight attendant
Three passengers survived the crash. The RCMP named them as Gabrielle Pelky, Nicole Williamson and Robin Wyllie.
Two of the survivors are in a hospital in Ottawa, while the third is an Iqaluit hospital.
Williamson found seven-year-old Gabrielle Pelky sitting on a rock with a broken leg right after the crash.
"She scooped her up in her arms and got to a better place…moved her to a place where she felt she was safer," said RCMP Sgt. Paul Solomon.
The TSB intends to interview the survivors as part of its investigation.
"We will interview the survivors when we get clearance from their doctors," Clitsome said.
"We normally get good information from witnesses and survivors."
The RCMP did not release any additional information on the victims other than their names, but some details of them have become known.
Bergmann, of Winnipeg, was the director of Canada's Polar Continental Shelf Project in Resolute and the father of four.
Tibbo, had survived a plane crash in the Arctic in 2008. A next-door neighbour said Tibbo, of Harbour Mille, N.L., had been afraid to fly ever since.
Morgan Cox, a mechanic for a hotel in Resolute, was supposed to be on the fated flight but he decided at the last minute to take a later flight so he could be at his son's 12th birthday party.
Cox, who was visiting his family in Fortune, N.L., said he feels both lucky to be alive and heartbroken to have lost loved ones.
"I just got to put it behind me and go to work," Cox told The Canadian Press on Monday.
Cox and two fellow workers who died in the crash, Mike Rideout and Tibbo, were all on board another Arctic flight that crash-landed in 2008 in the Cambridge Bay.
"I was slowly getting over it," Cox said about the previous crash experience. "It's back to square one now."
All four of the plane's crew died. Co-pilot David Hare's sister, Julie Garner, said he leaves behind a wife and three daughters – the youngest one just one month old.
"Flying was his passion and he took it very, very seriously," she said.
Interviews with other crash witnesses, airport staff and a review of the weather conditions and the plane's maintenance records will also be part of the TSB probe.
The manufacturers of the plane and its engine will also be involved in the investigation.
First Air has dispatched counsellors to provide support to airline staff in Resolute, Yellowknife and other parts of its northern network. The Nunavut government has also made counsellors available in Resolute and in other communities where the crash victims had relatives.
Meanwhile, Transport Canada documents show that another First Air 737-200 had to make an emergency landing in Nunavut Saturday, only two hours after the crash in Resolute Bay.
The occurrence report says the plane landed safely in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, only a short time after it took off from the airport there for Winnipeg. The plane turned back and landed with only one engine, and the crew had requested emergency vehicles be on site for its landing.
Transport Canada occurrence reports are preliminary and common. There were 30 such reports on Saturday, which include everything from medical emergencies to false alarms.
With files from The Canadian Press
