Incident at Fort Frances 50 NM E, Ontario

1996-11-04: Voyageur 793, a Beech A100 King Air, departed Fort Frances, Ontario on a scheduled passenger flight to Thunder Bay. About 20 minutes after departure, the crew felt a buffeting on the elevator controls and noted that a wing locker door had come ajar. The crew reduced speed to 150 kts and the buffeting stopped. The crew declared an emergency, proceeded to Thunder Bay and landed without further incident. Maintenance found that a washer was missing from one of the wing locker door latches, and the alignment and geometry of the latch had been compromised. Two engine tents had departed the wing locker. The latch was repaired and the wing locker was placarded unserviceable pending examination at the operator's maintenance headquartrers. The operator plans to submit an SDR to Transport Canada.