Passengers 'terrified' on N.W.T. flight where nose dived

A passenger on a flight in the N.W.T. says he was forced to hold a plane door shut to keep it from opening while in the air.

Engineer Roger Anderson says he will never forget the North Wright Airways flight, which was on Wednesday between Inuvik and Fort Good Hope.

"I was terrified. Afraid does not begin to describe what we went through," he said.

Anderson says hes happy to be alive, but is demanding answers about what happened.

There were six passengers on the six-seater 207 aircraft. Some described the flight as a near crash.

Frank T'Seleie Jr. was on the flight. He says getting off the ground was rough.

"[When] it took off we actually bounced of the runway instead. We kind of took off and we ended up back on the runway and we had to bounce off to take off."

'I was terrified. Afraid does not begin to describe what we went through.' Passenger Roger Anderson

Next, the passengers say they were about 20 minutes outside of Inuvik when the unthinkable happened.

"The nose of the plane went down. The nose dipped, almost to the vertical as if we were going straight down to the ground," said Anderson.

People were screaming. They came back up, but things didn't go smoothly from there. A window beside the pilot opened.

"It was shaking and I noticed to my horror that the window had come ajar," said Anderson.

Anderson says by instinct, he reached over and shut the window. But then he noticed something else.

"I looked and I noticed that the door itself on the pilot side was shaking and that there was light between the door and the inside of the plane. I could see light coming through."

Anderson says he was afraid the door, like the window, would fly open so to be safe he held it during the remainder of the flight.

North Wright Airways says the pilot - not a passenger - shut the window that came open.

The flight passengers say there was no communication with the pilot during the flight.

Anderson says he is writing a formal complaint to the aviation authorities.