Distressed Passenger Forced Open Cabin Door

Canadian investigators are faced with trying to determine how a reportedly distressed passenger forced open the door of a chartered Beechcraft King Air 200 at 23,000 feet over a remote area of the Northwest Territories, and leapt to his death.

CBC News cited a source with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in reporting the flight had departed the capital city of Yellowknife and was headed northeast to Cambridge Bay, in western Nunavut.

An air search is reportedly underway for the remains of the unidentified 20-year-old man.

The incident followed an emergency radio call from the plane's crew, reporting an unruly passenger. But Mounties waiting to arrest the man after the plane landed at Cambridge Bay were told of the bizarre turn of events.

Wes Alldrige, an experienced King Air pilot who was interviewed by CBC News, said opening the cabin door when the plane is pressurized would require both a huge amount of force, and failure of the door latches.

"This door has four big steel pins that lock the main cabin door to the fuselage. So while the aircraft is pressurized, it's not possible to open the door," Alldridge said.

FMI: www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca