Chief Bart Tsannie of the Hatchet Lake First Nation was waiting to catch a flight to Prince Albert when he noticed something was wrong.
It was Wednesday afternoon. He saw his plane come in to make a landing in the Wollaston Lake airport. It touched down on the landing strip at 4:02 p.m.
“When the plane landed,” he said, “we could see smoke coming down from the side when it hit the airport. It blew both tires on the right side.”
Transwest Air confirmed that Flight 502 got two flat tires upon landing at Wollaston Lake that afternoon. It stayed put until 10:18 p.m. while crews worked to repair the aircraft, before continuing on to Saskatoon.
“Transwest Air flight and ground crews followed proper procedures and safely completed the landing,” the airline told the Daily Herald in a statement. “All passengers were deplaned while the aircraft remained disabled on the runway.”
Dustin Link, a corporate services representative with the airline, said that no one was injured during the incident. Transwest dispatched a maintenance flight to Wollaston with certified engineers and replacement parts, he added.
Link said the company’s safety management team continues to investigate to determine the cause of the flat tires.
For more on this story, see the Friday edition of the Daily Herald.
