Two passengers who were injured after the plane they were on crashed just after takeoff from Fond du Lac Wednesday night are waiting to be airlifted to hospital.
Fond du Lac Denesuline First Nation Chief, Louis Mercredi, confirmed that the pair is in need of more medical attention and has been waiting two days for an air ambulance.
"They're still lying at the health clinic in Fond du Lac,” he said. "If we had a road, we would have had our people down at the southern hospital right now, but we don't have that resource.”
Mercredi says there is limited access to the community and is calling for the province to provide better infrastructure.
“We’re the most isolated community in the north. There’s only one way in and one way out and it’s an ice road. We have been having a more mild December than usual which means it’s too dangerous to travel on it.”
The chief says his entire community is in shock and described everyone living there as one close family. Seven mental health councilors have been sent to Fond du Lac to provide support for those who may need it.
Several people were injured in the plane crash en route to Stony Rapids Wednesday night. Some passengers suffered serious injuries, but no one has died and all 25 people on board are accounted for, according to RCMP.
Mercredi says he will be visiting the crash site Friday in Fond du Lac, located less than a kilometre from the airstrip. He also added that the airport’s runway is one of the shortest and narrowest in northern Saskatchewan.
“If we upgrade to another plane, we can’t because we don’t have the runway a proper standard runway. Once that aircraft hits and lands at one end of the runways, they have to throttle right back pretty well into reverse before it hits the end, that’s what we’ve been living with all these years.”
Mercredi will be meeting with Transport Safety Board investigators. The cause of the crash has yet to be determined.
