Edmonton museum awaiting permission to fly old plane 33 kilometres

EDMONTON - The Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton is pleading with Transport Canada to fast-track permission to fly an old Boeing 737 to an airport in Villeneuve, just 33 kilometres away.

The museum is currently located at the City Centre Airport near Edmonton's downtown.

However, that airport has been decommissioned and is scheduled for redevelopment and so the museum is relocating its aircraft to Villeneuve, a small community to the northwest of the city.

Executive director Thomas Hendricks says dismantling, trucking or reassembling the old plane is not an option because of the expense involved.

Hendricks says the bird is worth $1.6 million and if it can't be flown to Villeneuve, the museum will have no choice but to destroy it.

What also complicates things is that tenants at the airport only have until this weekend to clear out, and usually it takes months for Transport Canada to decide on such a request.

The city is allowing the plane to sit in a warm hangar to help out the inspectors and make things easier to move quickly should permission be granted.

The plane, which had been in service from 1979 to 2005, was donated to the museum.

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