Perimeter Aviation plane goes off runway in northern Manitoba

The Transportation Safety Board is sendinga team of investigators to Thompson, Man.after a plane went off the side of the runwayon Thursday, causing "substantial damage" to the craft.

The incident happened about 7:15 p.m. at the airport in the northern Manitoba city, about 650 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

Eric Vermette, TSB manager for Canada's central region,said there were just two people both pilots aboard the plane, a 19-seater Fairchild Metroliner III, at the time.They went to hospital as a precaution with minor injuries.

Vermette said there was "substantial damage" to the plane, including the landing gear, the belly and a propeller. The cause of the "runway excursion," is being investigated and "it's way too early" to say if pilot error played a part, Vermette said.

The plane was landing after coming from God's River, about 300 kilometres away. No passengers were on the plane, nor was any cargo,because the plane was just being moved from God's River to Thompson.

In an emailed statement Perimeter Airlines confirmed the crash.

On its website, the Winnipeg-based airlinesays it recently became the first aviation company to installGarmin 950 "glass cockpit avionics packages" into the Metro III fleet,which "dramatically improves situational awareness, making it easier and safer for pilots to fly (and land) in poor visibility/bad weather conditions."

At the time of the landing, Environment Canada reports the wind wascalm in Thompson, around 7 km/h, but it was snowing and there was already 14 cm of snow on the ground.

Perimeter offers daily, scheduled passenger flights to more than 20 communities in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.