Yak 40 in Canada

[hamstandard]

I like to read books about Canadian operators that are no longer in existence. I recently read one about a small company that was called Pem-Air, operating out of Pembroke, Ontario. They started in the '70's with a DC-3 and subsequently operated aircraft like the Chieftain, King Air, and even a helicopter for a while. Their main run was to Toronto but did do some other routes including in northern Ontario

One unusual anecdote was about the Yak-40. Supposedly, the Russians had offered to do a trial run of a Yak 40 on the Pembroke-Toronto route. supposedly so they could sell more in Canada. Apparently, it was brought over to Canada and did several flights, I assume without paying passengers as it was never certified in Canada. There is a photograph of a related news article in the book.

It appears to have all been a spying thing as the author, who owned Pem-Air says that on one flight out of Pembroke, the captain flew over and circled the nearby Petawawa military base and one of the Russian personnel in the cabin started filming the base.

I had never heard of a Yak in Canada before and could find nothing on the internet. Has anybody ever heard about this.

[FL030]

Neat story, and an ingenious way of espionage by appealing to the capitalist's pocketbooks.

[Dasher310]

One came up to CYZF in 76 or 77 I think it was doing a demonstration tour