A Lancaster bomber has flown into turbulence as the City of Toronto debates where the “rare and significant” piece of Second World War history should land.

City staff have recommended the bomber be donated to the British Columbia Aviation Museum near Victoria, B.C., a plan the grassroots #SaveLancasterFM104 organization is staunchly against.

“I just cannot see that airplane being anywhere else,” said Dan Grant, co-head of the group campaigning to restore the Lancaster bomber FM104 and display it in Toronto.

Avro Lancaster bombers are one of the most famous Allied bombers of the Second World War. There are only 17 complete Lancasters left, and eight are located in Canada.

Donating the bomber to the British Columbia Aviation Museum “should assure the aircraft’s long-term preservation and yield substantial public benefits through a novel approach to restoring and interpreting the Lancaster,” the staff report said.

The aircraft was built in Malton, Ont. in 1944. After the war ended, it was used for maritime patrols and search-and-rescues by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The bomber was retired in 1964 and displayed at Toronto’s Coronation Park, and, later, at the Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview Park.

The City of Toronto is paying $25,000 a year to store the dismantled plane near Stayner, Ont. There are no suitable city properties within Toronto to house the aircraft.

The staff report says the city “does not have a budget for restoring objects like the Lancaster.”

The British Columbia Aviation Museum is prepared to invest “five figures” into transporting the bomber across the country, and “millions of dollars” into its restoration, said museum president John Lewis.

“Any museum would be delighted to have this very iconic aircraft and we’re no different,” Lewis said.

The museum is “uniquely capable” of restoring the bomber, Lewis said. It will partner with Victoria Air Maintenance, which has “an international reputation as aircraft restorers.

“We’re particularly interested because there are currently no Lancasters in any condition, west of the Rockies,” said Lewis, who added that Lancasters were flown in British Columbia during the 1950s.

“Many Canadians lost their lives in Lancasters over Germany …. It’s important to remember that sacrifice,” Lewis said.

The #SaveLancasterFM104 group’s proposal suggests the city keep the aircraft and move it to a vacant city property where restoration can take place.

“Having grown up with that airplane in Toronto and it being there almost all our lives, as a part of our heritage, we decided that we needed to do something,” Grant said. “We needed to do whatever it took to let the people down at city hall know that this is the wrong move.”

Grant said he was “assembled a team of aviation experts” for the bomber’s restoration and display. He’s also identified “conceptual buildings” to house the bomber.

“We’ve got the whole package in place,” Grant said.

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According to the staff report, there is no suitable city property for the plane to be stored, and no room in the city’s operating budget for the “substantial moving and storage costs” the city would incur under the #SaveLancasterFM104 group’s proposal.

The Economic Development Committee will consider the report Friday.

Correction - April 13, 2018: This article was updated from a previous version that mistakenly said the British Columbia Aviation Museum is located on Victoria Island, B.C. It is located near Victoria, B.C. on Vancouver Island.