CTV News Toronto looked into the flight after a post gained attention on Reddit, questioning whether anyone else in Toronto was “kept awake at 3 a.m.” by the aircraft’s noise on Wednesday. The Piper PA-31 aircraft was flying at about 1,150 feet during its flight, flight-tracking website Flight Radar 24 shows. According to the Canadian Civil Aircraft Registry (CCAR), the C-GNOV classified airplane is registered to Eon Airborne Inc., although XEOS Imaging uses the airplane under a long-term agreement. XEOS Imaging President Tony St-Pierre said in a statement to CTV News Toronto on Thursday that the plane was “flying aerial photography and LIDAR projects.” LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technology that measures scattered light to determine the range or other information of a target. St-Pierre said the planes are scheduled to fly over Toronto until Friday. “We are required by Pearson Airport Traffic Control to fly as much as possible during the night to avoid air traffic conflicts. We have to complete our work tonight,” said St-Pierre. According to Flight Radar 24, the plane took off from Lake Simcoe Regional Airport in Barrie at about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday. It was scheduled to land in Oshawa, which is about 80 kilometers away. Rather than flying directly southeast, the aircraft appears to have circled throughout the greater Toronto area in the early morning hours. It made it as far as Guelph and Burlington before landing at Oshawa Executive Airport just after 4:45am. St-Pierre said the current work is being done under private contract, so he could not say what is being investigated on the flights.
Earlier Thursday, the Director for the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport told CTV News Toronto that he could not say for sure exactly what the aircraft was doing, but also believed the plane was conducting searches. Mike Drumm said this is the “perfect” time for surveying because the trees are bare and there is no snow on the ground.
