Colleagues and loved ones are reeling after multiple remote employees suddenly died in a freak accident.
Rio Tinto is assisting authorities in determining exactly how a fly-in fly-out plane crashed on the way to the Diavik mine.
Four Rio workers and two Northwestern Air crew members perished, and a seventh colleague was hospitalised with injuries, after the light aircraft made an unplanned descent near Fort Smith (1602km north of Calgary).
AMR understands the pilots lost contact not long after the flight departed. Rangers later discovered the wreck near Slave River and were still searching for at least 10 missing people at the time of publication.
Rio expressed its “deepest” sympathies to colleagues, friends and loved ones of those impacted.
“We are feeling numb with the devastating news that we have lost dear friends and colleagues,” chief executive Jakob Stausholm said in a public statement.
“As a company we are absolutely devastated by this news and offering our full support to our people, and the community who are grieving. We are working closely with authorities and will help in any way we can with their efforts to find out exactly what has happened.”
Stausholm and other representatives will offer their “full support” to the police, coroner and Transport Safety Board.
“We will be working closely with authorities over the coming days, weeks and months to support their efforts to understand the full facts of what has happened,” he said.
