MONTREAL, Aug 21, 2011 (AFP) - Investigators still do not know why a Boeing 737 with 15 people on board crashed in the Canadian Arctic, killing 12 people and injuring three others, police and the jet's owner First Air said Sunday.
The three survivors -- one of them a seven-year-old girl -- were in stable condition and recovering in hospitals after Saturday's accident near Resolute Bay in the Arctic territory of Nunavut, federal police said.
"At this time the cause of the crash is unknown," First Air's vice president of marketing, Chris Ferris, told reporters, his voice breaking with emotion.
"First Air is cooperating fully. Our thoughts and focus are with the families and friends of the passenger and crew and the community of Resolute Bay."
The seven-year-old girl and a 48-year-old man were evacuated to Ottawa for treatment, while the third survivor, a 23-year-old woman, was hospitalized in Nunavut, federal police said.
"We have no other information in regards to precipitating factors causing the plane crash," police spokeswoman Angelique Dignard said in an email.
The plane's black boxes have been recovered, Transportation Safety Board of Canada spokesman Chris Krepski told AFP.
Ferris said counselors had been sent to both Yellowknife -- the charter flight's point of origin -- and Resolute Bay to help the families of the victims.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was expected in the area Monday as part of his annual trip to the Arctic, which coincides with military drills taking place nearby.
