An airport emergency was averted this morning at the Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker Airport.

Members of Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services responded at roughly 9:39 a.m. this morning after a Viper Twin Commanche with two occupants was reporting landing gear extension problems. One engine company from station four on Faithful Ave. responded.

Maxine Montgomery, manager of customer and terminal services with the Saskatoon Airport Authority said the occurrence was a rare one.

“It certainly doesn’t happen that often,” said Montgomery. “A situation Delta could be a number of things on an aircraft that creates the need to have an emergency standby and hopefully, it won’t escalate into a need for it, but they need to have the equipment on the ground.”

She explained there a number of factors that could contribute to a distress call being issued, but noted a common occurrence is a malfunctioning single-light that could indicate equipment is failing, when it’s actually functioning normally.

Airport Crash Rescue and one Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services apparatus were on standby, but the airplane landed safely.