The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating a fatal plane crash that took place early Monday evening in Whitehorse.

Gerrit Vermeer, a senior investigator, air operations, said Tuesday the four-seater, single-engine Cessna 170 came down in a wooded area near the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport at about 6:30 p.m.

The pilot and a passenger died in the crash. Their names and hometowns have not been released.

The crash, barely 600 metres from the end of the runway and just west of the busy Robert Service Way baseball diamonds, also sparked a fire.

Airport and city firefighters doused the flames with assistance from a helicopter dropping water from a bucket.

No communications spokesperson from the Yukon government’s Department of Community Services returned the Star’s calls for more information on the response effort or state when the last fatal incident at the airport occurred. It has been at least several decades.

Eric Collard, a transportation safety board spokesperson, said an Edmonton-based investigation team was travelling Tuesday to Whitehorse to look into the crash.

Vermeer said the team should be on the scene sometime after landing in Whitehorse.

Neither Collard or Vermeer were not in a position to give much information about the crash.

Vermeer did say the plane’s destination had been Anchorage. He could not confirm whether the occupants were from Canada or the U.S.

He said the plane could have stopped in Whitehorse for fuel, but could not say for sure.

The investigators are looking to speak with any witnesses or people involved in the flight.

Vermeer said the investigators will be taking photos of the scene.

They want to speak with people at the airport who were involved in either fuelling the plane or developing its flight plan.

The investigation will have three phases. The first is gathering information. The second is analyzing the evidence.

The last would be to do up a report, whose public release could take six months to a year or longer.

Investigators could on the field for a few days.

The length of time at the scene will depend on several factors. It could be longer if the team feels it has to look further into the plane itself.

“Our process is quite robust,” Vermeer said.

Jon Lee, another board spokesman, agreed that the probe will be a lengthy one.

“Collecting information on the pilot, the aircraft, the maintenance history, collecting weather information. If there was any closed-circuit TV imagery at the airport, we will try to get that,” Lee said.

Anyone looking to give information to the investigators can either call Whitehorse RCMP, who were among the emergency responders, or contact the safety board’s response line at 1-819-997-7887 or online at www.tsb.gc.ca.

– With a file from The Canadian Press