What happened
A twin-engine airplane was conducting a mercy flight from Cambridge Bay to Yellowknife when it went down near Hottah Lake, located approximately 300 km north of Yellowknife. The aircraft was transporting a nurse and two Inuit patients at the time of the accident.
The crash resulted in two fatalities, specifically the nurse and one of the passengers. The pilot and a 14-year-old male passenger survived the initial impact but sustained injuries. Due to the pilot's broken bones, the young passenger was forced to provide essential care, including the construction of a shelter and a fire to combat the extreme environment.
During the period of isolation, the pilot survived by consuming flesh from one of the deceased passengers, while the boy did not. After roughly three weeks, the young passenger succumbed to starvation and exposure. On December 7, 1972, an emergency locator transmitter signal was detected by a Hercules aircraft on a standard mission. Although rescue specialists were deployed to the site shortly thereafter, they found only the pilot still living.
Findings
The crash occurred under unknown circumstances during the flight phase.