Nav Canada crew was doing inspection of airport equipment

Around and around, the Challenger jet went.

Around and around, the Challenger jet went.

Some residents of Granger and Copper Ridge took notice Monday of an aircraft doing somewhat unusual circuits over the Whitehorse airport and their neighbourhoods.

The aircraft, owned by Nav Canada, was in the city for a routine inspection of airport electronic equipment used to assist pilots landing in conditions of low visibility, Nav Canada spokesman Ron Singer explained Monday.

He said the airport’s instrument landing system provides lateral and vertical information to help guide pilots to the runway when the ceiling is below 60 metres (200 feet).

The system is checked every six months or so, Singer said.

The Challenger arrived in Whitehorse after checking the instrumentation at the Sandspit airport on British Columbia’s Queen Charolette Islands, and was off later Monday to Resolute, Nunavut, on the southern tip of Cornwallis Island.

Singer said the Watson Lake airport is the other airport in the Yukon with an instrument landing system.

There are 80 airports in Canada with the system, he said.