Boutique Air door opens on takeoff

By TOM LAVENTURE

tlaventure@yourdailyglobe.co

Ironwood — Boutique Air, Inc. is reporting there were no injuries or damage to a plane after a door opened during takeoff on Wednesday in Minneapolis.

Boutique Air flight 834 to Ironwood was departing Minneapolis on schedule at 2:40 p.m., with five passengers and a crew of two, according to Tom Warren, vice president of business development for Boutique Air. The single engine Pilatus PC-12 commercial passenger plane was reportedly taking off when the door opened.

“The cargo door opened while the airplane was on the runway,” Warren said. “The plane returned to the gate. There were no injuries to passengers and no damage to the plane upon inspection.”

The passengers were transported to Ironwood by ground transportation, he said. Boutique flights have resumed without cancellation since the incident.

Boutique Air is the Essential Air Service airline that is contracted with the Gogebic-Iron County Airport. The airline assumed service in August and operates daily flights to and from Chicago and Minneapolis along with operating several other air routes nationwide.

The Pilatus PC-12 is the predominant plane in the Boutique Air inventory. Warren has stated previously that the Pilatus PC-12 has no history of accidents with injury.

This is the second incident for Boutique Air service to Ironwood this year. On Jan. 21, the Boutique Air afternoon flight from Ironwood to Chicago lost a wheel on approach to O’Hare International Airport. The landing reportedly created a lot of sparks but the five passengers and two crew aboard the single engine Pilatus PC-12 turboprop were not injured.

There were no problems found with any other aircraft in the Boutique fleet of Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, Warren said to the Gogebic-Iron County Airport Board at the April meeting. This type of incident is exceedingly rare and evidence suggests a maintenance issue as the Pilatus PC-12 has the best safety record for its type since it came out in 1995, he said. 

Because flight 834 never departed Minneapolis on Wednesday, there is no flight record that identifies the plane registration and there is not posted information if the same Pilatus PC-12 was involved in the second incident. 

Warren is scheduled to be present at the airport board meeting on Monday, according to the meeting agenda.

Pat Hanson, airport board chair, said he could not comment on Friday. There is just not enough information yet to provide an informed statement, he said.

“I know he’s (Tom Warren) is going to be at the meeting for Monday, so we should get some more information from him then about what is going on,” Hanson said.