The Army National Guard finally approved the Pacific Northwest Naval Air Museum’s PBY-5A Catalina seaplane’s airlift to the museum’s new location on Ault Field Road, Kelly Davidson, the museum’s manager of public programs, confirmed.

Transporting the PBY will ultimately be a three-day process.

Late Sunday night, the PBY will be relocated to a pick-up zone at Southeast Bayshore Drive and Southeast Midway Boulevard. At a time yet to be determined on Monday, crews will “hook up the slings” and “inspect the aircraft,” Davidson added.

Between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Tuesday, a Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord will lift the PBY and carry it over water, around Polnell Point, Strawberry Point and Dugualla Bay. The suspended PBY will then cruise over Highway 20 at the Farmstand before flying over Naval Air Station Whidbey Island runways a final time and landing in the museum’s gravel parking lot.

Should weather and operational conditions permit, the goal for takeoff is 10 a.m. and the transport is estimated to take about 15 minutes, according to a release.

Museum parking lots will be closed to the public on Tuesday beginning at 8:30 a.m. until the transport is finished and the helicopter has departed. Viewing areas for the landing are located outside the parking lots, to be monitored by museum volunteers.

Davidson cautioned viewers of potential hazards like “downdrafts and debris.”

Roads will be closed from the PBY’s previous location on Pioneer Way to the pick-up zone. There may be delays on Highway 20 and Ault Field Road in the event that drivers pull over to take in the spectacle, Davidson added.