A distressed passenger leapt to his death from a small aircraft some 7000 meters above the Canadian Arctic after forcing open its cabin door, police said Thursday.

The 20-year-old man became unruly during the charter flight from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories to the small Inuit community of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, prompting the crew to alert authorities on the ground.

As they told police about the in-flight emergency, they tried to calm the man.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police told local media the pilots had "made every possible effort" to stop the man from jumping.

But he eventually leaped from the twin-propeller King Air 200 about 180 kilometers from the landing strip, police said.

Sergeant Harold Trupish of the Canadian police praised the pilots for their handling of the crisis, during which the plane was depressurized and forced to land without its door, the Edmonton Journal reported.

A search for the man's remains has been launched, but was suspended due to bad weather.