A historic DC-3 briefly returned to the air on Friday, Jan. 17 when the 85-year old aircraft belonging to the Canadian Museum of Flight was lifted by a crane at the Langley airport, which moved it from a spot next to the north-south runway to a location in front of the historical mural on the north side of the airport administration building.

Relocation was ordered by NAV Canada, the federal air traffic control agency, which had "calculated a potential obstacle issue for aircraft arriving and departing," said Geoff Guest, a member of the museum board of directors.

He said another museum aircraft, a Conair Firecat, was ordered to move a few months earlier for the same reasons.

Guest coordinated the move of the DC-3 with assistance of museum volunteers, airport staff and the cooperation of airport manager Patric Sihota, using the same crane company that moved it back in 2017, Maxum Crane Rentals Ltd.

"It's actually quite a rare DC3" Guest said.

Named "Spirit of the Skeena," the DC-3 was the first to be owned and operated by a  B.C. airline, Queen Charlotte Airlines, and went on to become the first operated by Pacific Western Airlines.

It was rescued by "Friends of the DC-3, North America," from a scrap dealer after it was stripped for parts and abandoned in Terrace.  It ended up first at the then-Transportation Museum in Cloverdale, and when that closed, it went to the Langley museum.

It is the second time in just under 8 years the DC-3 has had to move at the Langley airport.

In 2017, it had to be shifted to the location west of the runway because of construction at the airport.

At the time, that particular site was expected to be the location of a big new museum building, but that didn't happen.

"There's a bit of a creek, and the terrain there is really not acceptable," Guest said.

Now, the museum has an agreement to move to a new home in Pitt Meadows, but that is still a few years off.

"The museum's not going anywhere soon," Guest said.

"It's the number one tourist attraction in Langley next to [historic] Fort Langley, which is a national park. We've got education and kids programs. We just want to pass on the history of what aviation does."

This year, the museum plans to focus on the history of civil aviation, after marking the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) last year.