A Cessna 172 registered to, and in the livery of, the Turkish Airlines Flight Academy (TAFA) crashed short of the runway in Iqaluit, Nunavut on Sunday (September 5). The only occupant, the pilot, suffered only minor injuries.
The 172 was one of several 172s that were later spotted on the ramp at Iqaluit airport. Since TAFA has no training facility in either the U.S. or in Canada, the only one listed on their website being in Istanbul, Turkey, we are left to assume the aircraft were being ferried from the U.S. to Turkey. Not much information about the incident has been forthcoming from TAFA.
The occurance aircraft had reportedly encountered poor weather and the pilot had to abort his approach into Iqaluit airport. After circling haphazardly for about 25 minutes, the pilot attempted another approach to landing. However, the 172 crashed about 2-1/2 km short of the runway.
The Transportation Safety Board was notified but declined to launch an investigation, classifying the incident as a “Class 5 Occurrence”, limited to information gathering only.