By Canadian Press

Passengers drowned after door design slowed exit in fatal NWT plane crash: TSB

Feb 28, 2019 | 11:14 AM

GATINEAU, Que. — The Transportation Safety Board is issuing a warning over the doors on a small float plane after three passengers drowned on a sightseeing flight in the Northwest Territories last summer.

The passengers died in August after the Cessna 206 crashed during an attempted landing on a remote lake.

The board found one of the plane’s two adjoining exit doors was blocked by the aircraft’s extended wing flaps, which made opening the rear door more complicated.

It says the passengers were found with their seatbelts undone, although it couldn’t say what efforts they had made to get out of the sinking aircraft.

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The board says regulators in both Canada and the U.S. have known about the problem with the Cessna 206 since 1998, but no solution has been found and the plane continues to be licensed for up to five passengers.

The TSB says eight people have died since 1989 in accidents in which the wing flaps blocked the door.

The Canadian Press