Three survivors of a plane crash in Canada's Arctic region were recovering from their injuries Sunday as investigators sifted through the wreckage to determine what caused the Boeing 737-200 jet to slam into a hill in foggy weather, killing 12 people, AP reported. First Air charter flight 6560 crashed Saturday afternoon as it was approaching the airport near the tiny hamlet of Resolute Bay in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. Local residents and soldiers from a nearby military exercise rushed to the scene in a effort to rescue survivors from the wreckage. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Angelique Dignard said two of the survivors - a seven-year-old girl and a 48-year-old man - were transported to a hospital in Ottawa from a medical facility in the Nunavut territorial capital of Iqaluit. A 23-year-old woman remains in a hospital in Iqaluit. Dignard said all three are in stable condition, but she would not comment on the nature of their injuries. First Air said all four crew members died in the crash. First Air spokesman Christopher Ferris, his voice near breaking, said the cause of the accident has not been determined yet. Ferris said the airline is fully co-operating with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, whose investigators arrived at the scene shortly after Saturday's crash because they were already in the region for the military exercise. The military had intended to stage a mock airliner crash rescue on Monday. The RCMP said the plane's two black boxes with flight recordings had been recovered from the crash site. Forensic identification officers have been sent to Resolute Bay to identify the bodies and assist in the investigation. Aziz Kheraj, the owner of the nearby South Camp Inn, said he had chartered the flight from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories to Resolute Bay every three weeks for the past six months to bring food and passengers to his hotel. The plane was scheduled to continue on to Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island. -- SPA
