Incident
at 6100N 08100W / 200 miles SSE Coral Harbour, NU
A Nolinor Aviation Boeing 737 200 (NRL797) from Mary River, NU (CMR2) to Kitchener/ Waterloo, ON (CYKF) operating on an IFR flight contacted Edmonton Area Control Centre (ACC) level at FL220 and requested IFR clearance. Flight was presently in controlled airspace inside of Winnipeg ACC area of responsibility. Winnipeg ACC coordinated an IFR clearance for NRL797 via Montreal ACC and Quebec radio. On initial radio contact with Winnipeg ACC, NRL797 requested to divert to La Grande Riviere, QC (CYGL) due to fuel considerations and was subsequently cleared to CYGL. No other flights in the vicinity. No impact to operations.
UPDATE: TSB Report#A15C0073: A Boeing 737-200, C-GNRD, operated by Nolinor Aviation as flight NRL797, departed from Mary River, Nunavut (CMR2), under IFR in uncontrolled airspace with a planned cruise altitude of FL340 to Kitchener, Ontario (CYKF). The Nolinor dispatcher responsible for NRL797 was experiencing high workload and had forgotten to file the IFR flight plan with ATC. While climbing through FL160, NRL797 contacted Edmonton ACC to request IFR clearance. However, the ACC was experiencing problems with CAATS and was in the midst of preparing to shift to backup systems in anticipation of a CAATS failure. Because of the imminent system failure and the absence of a filed flight plan, the controller could not issue an IFR clearance to NRL797 to climb into controlled airspace, and NRL797 remained at FL220, initially below controlled airspace. Subsequently, the flight crew communicated with a number of ATS facilities to obtain a clearance but no clearance was issued. The flight entered the southern domestic controlled airspace at FL220 without an IFR clearance, and the crew advised ATC they could not descend below controlled airspace because of fuel considerations. When NRL797 was at 5856N 081W, Quebec Radio relayed an IFR clearance to CYKF at FL220. The extended cruise at low altitude resulted in greater fuel consumption than planned, and, at 5530N 081W, the flight made an en route diversion to La Grande Rivière, Quebec (CYGL).