A Piper Aztec aircraft landed safely at Buttonville airport on Wednesday morning after circling Toronto for more than three hours with landing gear problems.

There were two people on board the small plane that reported the problem shortly after it took off from the city's island airport at about 8:30 a.m.
  
Toronto City Centre Airport director Ken Lundy confirmed the safe landing to CBC News. "We got word basically, at around twenty to twelve, or so, that the pilot had been successful in getting his nose gear to engage, and all his indicator lights indicated it had engaged and locked off and it was safe for him to do a normal landing," said Lundy.

He said mechanics advised the pilot over the airwaves with ways to get the landing gear operating again.

The plane touched down shortly before noon at Buttonville airport in Markham, north of the city.

The problem appeared to be with the plane's hydraulics. The landing gear under the wings was operating normally, but the landing gear under the nose was not functioning.
 
Emergency officials had the option of sending the plane to Pearson International Airport or Buttonville or allowing it to land at the City Centre Airport on Toronto Island.

Metro Toronto Police spokesperson Const. Wendy Drummond said there were a lot of factors that went into the decision, "plane activity in the air, weather conditions … the amount of [emergency] services, the amount of traffic, just the location itself, if something was to happen where would the best location for minimal damage be."

The plane had enough fuel to last for several hours, giving the pilot and officials time to explore a number of contingency plans.

There were no injuries and no damage reported to the plane.