Tuesday, May 27, 2014

That Time a Commercial Aircraft Ran Out of Fuel Mid-Flight- The Gimli Glider

An amazing story of a Boeing 767 running out of fuel, yet bringing everyone home alive.

Moral of the story:  Never ever give up.

  "On July 23, 1983, in the small town of Gimli, Manitoba, Captain Robert Pearson and Co-Pilot Maurice Quintal expertly glided a 100-ton Boeing 767 carrying 69 people to a safe landing without engines, air brakes or flaps, and minimal control of the aircraft."


The first warning light came on. Flight 143 was . . . at 41,000 feet and 469 knots at the time . . . . ‘At that point . . . We believed we had a failed fuel pump in the left wing, and switched it off. . . . . When a second fuel pressure warning light came on, Pearson felt it was too much of a coincidence and made a decision to divert to Winnipeg.
Just minutes later, another pressure gauge “lit up,” and they lost their left engine. Two minutes after that: “The EICAS issued a sharp bong – indicating the complete and total loss of both engines. . . . ‘It’s a sound that Bob and I had never heard before.’ . . . . Starved of fuel, both . . . engines had flamed out. Pearson’s response, recorded on the cockpit voice recorder, was ‘Oh fuck.’”
Another problem was that, unknown to the pilots, the abandoned runway had been converted to a recreational center, including auto and go-cart racing. In one of the many weird coincidence of the day, July 23, 1983, was the “Family Day” for the Winnipeg Sports Car Club: “Go-cart races were being held on one portion of runway 32L and just past the dragstrip another portion of the runway served as the final straightaway for a road course. Around the edges of the straightaway were cars, campers, kids and families in abundance…”
Read it all for your adventure of the day.   After hearing this saga, any problem you have to deal with as part of your everyday routine will seem incredibly minor.
Hat tip: American Digest


3 comments:

  1. Chris from CanadaMay 27, 2014 at 2:50 PM

    I remember this because I live very close to where it happened. These pilots were (and still are) heros. The main cause was a confusion with the amount of fuel put in the plane at its last stop because of the recent change-over here in Canada to the metric system. They figured the fuel in gallons but put litres in. (or was it kilos and pounds???) The pilots ended up getting punished for this incident even though they did a superhuman job of saving their passengers and crew's lives as well as the airplane itself.

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  2. the Canadians have a talent for running out of fuel. Look up the AirTransat airbus 330, lost both engines almost the middle of the Atlantic. heck of a story and a safe landing in the Azores after 20 minutes with no power

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