Six of seven passengers died when a small plane carrying miners crashed in Canada's far north on Tuesday, a source familiar with the investigation told AFP.
According to the Joint Operations Coordination Center, contact with the Northwestern Air aircraft was lost shortly after takeoff at around 8:50 a.m. local time (3:50 p.m. GMT) near Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.
According to the source close to the investigation, only one person survived. His health status is unknown.
The Fort Smith hospital launched a plan to accommodate numerous victims, and a local forensic pathology official spoke of several “fatalities” without providing further details.
Rescuers rode snowmobiles or parachutes to the crash site, 1.1 kilometers from the runway.
Flights to Fort Smith, a small town near the border with Alberta, were canceled until Wednesday.
Northwestern Air, which operated the propeller-driven Jetstream, said the flight was transporting employees to a mine in the far north.