Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Airport exercise has residents looking to skies

An exercise at the Charlottetown Airport Tuesday afternoon had residents looking to the skies.

What some described as erratic flying at the airport turned out to be merely a safety test by the corporation that controls the air and navigation system in Canada.

One person tweeted that they observed an airplane seemingly abort an attempted landing at the airport at 12:30 p.m.

“12:30 plane landing had to bank at the last minute and regain altitude . . . re-attempted at 12:40ish,’’ wrote @PEIDrivers, who said they observed it from their home in Mulberry Park.

Doug Newson, CEO of the Charlottetown Airport Authority, said it was a routine exercise.

“(Nav Canada was at the airport) testing their approach instruments and all that stuff. I don’t think it was an aborted landing,’’ Newson said.

Nav Canada is the country’s civil air navigation services provider, a private sector, non-share capital corporation financed through publicly-traded debt. With operations coast to coast, Nav Canada provides air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation.

The aircraft people saw banking at the last minute and regaining altitude was a Navy Canada aircraft.

“They install all of our landing systems, that sort of technology, so they’re just testing it to make sure it’s working properly. It’s standard testing that they do.’’

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca

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