By: Darryl Mills

There were some scary moments Tuesday afternoon on a Transwest Air commercial flight out of Prince Albert, when smoke in the cockpit forced the pilot to declare an emergency and return to the Prince Albert Municipal Airport. Flight 502 from Prince Albert to La Ronge took off at 1:44 p.m. local time and returned to Prince Albert Airport only minutes later. The crew immediately donned oxygen masks and turned the Saab-340B aircraft around and with airport emergency crews responding, landed safely, with the passengers doing a rapid de-planing. There were 20 adult passengers and one infant on the plane, along with the flight crew of three. According to Transwest Air COO Garrett Lawless, it was a minor incident, but he praised the crew of the aircraft for their quick-thinking and response for guaranteeing that it didn’t become anything worse. “It was a textbook response,” Lawless said. “Soon after take off, the GPS screen went blank and right afterward, there was an acrid smell in the cockpit,” Lawless said. “The crew immediately put on their oxygen masks and declared an emergency and returned to Prince Albert.” The flight was at 11,000 feet when the situation arose and Lawless had nothing but praise for the entire crew, which included Captain Logan Redekop, First Officer John Verbeteen and Flight Attendant Wendy Kolababa. “The crew response was so impressive,” Lawless said. He said the response of the pilots was absolutely textbook, while the work of Kolababa was just as impressive. “Everyone thinks of serving drinks and snacks when they think of flight attendants,” Lawless said. “But the real purpose of a flight attendant is to manage the back of the airplane in situations like these. “Panic can turn a non-event into an event, and she did a great job of keeping passengers calm.” He said the crew was in communication with the passengers throughout the incident so they knew what was happening. Lawless said passengers were aware of the acrid smell, but did not see smoke. Another Saab was dispatched from Saskatoon, and all of the passengers were back in the air, with a different air crew, less than two hours later and all had arrived safely at their destinations by late afternoon. Lawless noted an event like this one is “very rare,” but that crews practice for this type of event regularly. The airplane in question had a new GPS unit in place and was already being test-flown without any passengers late Tuesday afternoon. It will be fully inspected by Transwest Air maintenance staff, and when it gets the all-clear will return to Saskatoon. Lawless said the incident, although scary, was handled so well by the crew, that it really had him beaming with pride when it comes to the people working there, as he is still settling into his COO role, which he only started in August. “I’m really proud of our people and it gives me great confidence in the people we have,” he said. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada was contacted by Transwest Air soon after the incident occurred and has opened a file on the matter.