Nav Canada says fog, not technology, was likely to blame for a Sunwing Vacations flight being diverted to Abbotsford on Jan. 13.
The chartered airplane, flown by Viva Aerobus of Mexico, was scheduled to land at the Victoria International Airport that evening. However, passengers were told that the airport had closed due to “extreme weather.” The ensuing impact on people’s travel home resulted in Sunwing offering each a $150 voucher.
That prompted some online to question whether the landing technology at the Victoria airport was the cause of the plane being rerouted.
“All this because the Victoria Airport Authority operates the lowest, oldest and most basic Instrument Landing System (ILS) Category 1 (BCAT1) and won’t upgrade like #YVR to (BCAT#) like the rest of the world,” posted @We_Fly_YYJ on Twitter.
All this because the Victoria Airport Authority operates the lowest, oldest and most basic Instrument Landing System (ILS) Category 1 (BCAT1) and won't upgrade like #YVR to (BCAT3) like the rest of the modern world.
— Victoria, BC Airport (@We_Fly_YYJ) January 15, 2018
@allovthethings This flight was operated by VivaAreoBus contracted by #SunWings & was 1 of 6 flights diverted & canceled bc of the old, basic model of (ILS) Instrument Landing system (BCAT1) the VAA #YYJ operates & refuses to upgrade to the modern system all other #airports use.
— Victoria, BC Airport (@We_Fly_YYJ) January 16, 2018
Nav Canada spokesperson Ron Singer says weather that night was foggy, starting with six miles of visibility, quickly dropping to a quarter-mile visibilty.
Nav Canada operates the control tower at the Vitoria airport. Singer noted that they upgraded the airport’s ILS on two runways — in 2013 and 2014 — with “state-of-the-art” landing equipment.