BOOKINGS are now being taken for people wanting to see the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster when it visits Durham Tees Valley Airport (DTVA) later this month

With large numbers of people expected to want to see the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s Avro Lancaster bomber—one of only two still flying—when it arrives at the airport on August 28, passes need to be booked in advance via www.dtva.co.uk/lancastermynarski.

In addition anyone wanting information about arrangements for the visit can email Lancaster@dtva.co.uk or ring a dedicated telephone line 01325 331000 which will be open between 10am to 3pm Monday to Friday.

The Lancaster is scheduled to leave the Warplane Museum in Ontario today (Tuesday, August 5) and is expected to arrive in the UK on Friday after stopovers in Labrador and Iceland.

DTVA manager Shaun Woods said: “This is very much the Canadian Air Force’s spiritual home in the UK and the links remain very strong. For example, every year the very active Middleton St George Memorial Association organise a weekend of events, and of course there is the marvellous statue of Andrew Mynarski outside what is now the St George Hotel and during the War was the officers' mess.”

Mr Woods added: “Of course, we expect that lots of people will want to go on board the Lancaster--dependent on the numbers that might not be possibly for everybody but I can assure people they will be able to get up close - and one of the highlights will be when the aircraft performs a flypast during the afternoon.”

The Lancaster event will run from 11am to 6pm on August 28, with the flypast scheduled for 3pm.

Various activities will be staged throughout the day and any profits made from the event will go to the Warplane Museum.