What happened
On November 1, 2021, at approximately 17:48 Mountain Daylight Time, an Air Tindi Ltd. de Havilland DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, registered as C-GNPS, departed from Yellowknife Airport (CYZF) for a scheduled visual flight rules flight to Fort Simpson Airport (CYFS). The aircraft was carrying two crew members and three passengers.
Roughly 40 minutes after takeoff, the flight crew determined that the aircraft did not have enough fuel to reach the destination or return to the departure airport. In an effort to manage the remaining fuel, the crew diverted the flight to Fort Providence Aerodrome (CYJP) and notified their company of the situation. During this process, the crew intentionally shut down the left engine to conserve fuel, but shortly thereafter, the right engine also experienced a flameout.
At 18:51 Mountain Daylight Time, the crew executed a forced landing on muskeg approximately 6.7 nautical miles northwest of Fort Providence. Following the landing, an emergency locator transmitter signal was detected by the Canadian Mission Control Centre. Rescue teams located and recovered all five occupants about four hours later. While there were no fatalities, all individuals sustained minor injuries related to hypothermia. The aircraft suffered substantial damage during the landing.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the sequence of events leading to the engine failures and the subsequent forced landing. Investigators examined the fuel management decisions made by the crew and the mechanical state of the engines following the flameout of the right engine.