At 40,000 feet, the planes engines had failed 17 minutes earlier. Now nicknamed the Gimli Glider, Air Canada flight 143 was flying from Montreal to Edmonton on 23 July 1983, when the plane ran out of fuel at 41,000ft. Spontaneous hugs from strangers are not uncommon for local resident Bob Pearson, otherwise known as the Gimli Glider pilot who miraculously landed a 61-passenger Boeing 767 without fuel July 23, 1983 in Manitoba. Quintal also discovered that his old training runway had been in part converted into a drag-racing track, with scores of people on the ground below. Then a second light came on. As the gliding plane closed in on the decommissioned runway, the pilots noticed two boys were riding bicycles within 1,000 feet (300m) of the projected point of impact. [2][3][4][5][6] It resulted in no serious injuries to passengers or persons on the ground, and only minor damage to the aircraft. The crowd scattered to safer ground. I trust you are not in too much distress.". The Gimli Glider | Amusing Planet Following his 35 year career as an Air Canada pilot he served the community in a myriad of ways, most recently planning and driving for meals on wheels. [9]:4344, Following Air Canada's internal investigation, Captain Pearson was demoted for six months, and First Officer Quintal was suspended for two weeks for allowing the incident to happen. Saving the flight fell to Atchison, the co-pilot, who tried to get on the radio to declare an emergency, but couldnt hear the response because of the noises surrounding him. I'm not that handsome. However, 10 did suffer minor injuries during the evacuation. In July 1983, an Air Canada flight with 69 people on board out of gas while flying over northwestern Ontario. An engineer in Edmonton duly did so when the aircraft arrived from Toronto following a trouble-free flight the day before the incident. Who ever dreamed that up? First Officer Quintal did the calculation by hand, and Captain Pearson checked the arithmetic with his Jeppesen slide rule. Onboard this multi-leg Canadian domestic flight were 61 passengers and eight crew. Whether they had time to glean it or not, the crowd of drag-race enthusiasts was escaping the trajectory of the jet as it attempted an emergency landing, using a stretch of racetrack as an improvised runway. Since the engines supply power for the hydraulic systems, in the case of complete power outage, the aircraft was designed with a ram air turbine that swings out from a compartment and drives a hydraulic pump to supply power to hydraulic systems. They're safe and don't contain sensitive information. Miraculously, they landed without any severe injuries to passengers or crew. The Surviving Pilots of Mayday: Where are they now? American Airlines Flight 96 from LA to New York ran into trouble soon after a stopover in Detroit, when the rear cargo door suddenly broke off. She also said it paved the way for pilot Chesley Sully Sullenberg to save the day. Because the FMC would reset during the stopover in Ottawa, the captain had the fuel tanks measured again with the dripstick. The flight was operated by a five-month-old Boeing 767-200 with registration C-GAUN. While these provided sufficient information to land the aircraft, the backup instruments did not include a vertical speed indicator that could be used to determine how far the aircraft could glide. This required the fuel to be manually measured using a dripstick. 1983 Trivia, Fun Facts and History - Pop Culture The captain of this Qantas flight - Richard Champion de Crespigny- was also given a Polaris Award. While waiting for the fuel truck, he enabled the defective channel and performed an FQIS self test. Though it would mean forgoing reliable emergency assistance, Quintal urged Pearson their best hope was a nearby runway in the town of Gimli, which Quintal was familiar with from his time training in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Captain was Robin 'Bob' Pearson, 48 years old, with 15,000 hours of flying time. Pearson and Quintal both used the density of jet fuel in lb/L without converting to kg/L:[9]:4041, Instead of taking on the 20,088 L of additional fuel that they required, they took on only 4,917 L. The use of the incorrect conversion factor led to a total fuel load of only 22,300lb (10,100kg) rather than the 49,170lb (22,300kg) that were needed. On the flight deck were Captain Robert Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal. After an order is placed, our forestry partners will plant the tree in the area of greatest need (nearest the funeral home), according to the planting schedule for the year. On July 23, 1983, Pearson and his co-pilot Maurice Quintal tapped their most elemental piloting skills to guide the nearly 100-ton airliner on a powerless descent from more than 26,000 feet to a. The plane, with first officer, the ironically named John Coward, at the controls, landed around 270 metres short of the runway, just beyond the A30. This manoeuvre, performed by "crossing the controls" (applying rudder in one direction and ailerons in the other direction), is commonly used in gliders and light aircraft to descend more quickly without increasing forward speed; it is almost never used in large jet airliners outside of rare circumstances like those of this flight. When the plane finally hit ground, passengers were greeted by a loud bang similar to a shotgun blast. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. [9]:4243, The previous flight from Edmonton to Montreal had avoided the error. His head and torso were outdoors at 17,300 feet and being battered by 300mph winds while his legs remained inside, with flight attendants gripping him tightly. He eventually landed safely in Southampton, where Lancaster was treated for frostbite, shock and a broken arm. Plane going down. Thirty-five years ago this summer, Canada had its own miracle on the Hudson when Captain Robert (Bob) Pearson brought his Air Canada Boeing 767 to a safe landing in Gimli, Manitoba. But minutes later, the second engine failed, and the controls in the cockpit went dark. The fueler at Edmonton knew the density of jet fuel in kg/L, and he calculated the correct number of litres to pump into the tanks. Having punched in the same faulty fuel calculations as the engineers on the ground, the pair suspected the cause was a failing fuel pump, in which case gravity would circulate the fuel regardless. The engineer had encountered the same problem earlier in the month when this same aircraft had arrived from Toronto with an FQIS fault. First Officer Quintal began to calculate whether they could reach Winnipeg. Instead, hydraulic systems are used to multiply the forces applied by the pilots. With him in the cockpit was First Officer Maurice Quintal, aged 36, with 7,000 hours of flying time. As weight shifted to the front of the plane, the unlocked nose gear was jammed back into its compartment, and the plane bounced forward before grinding along the runway in the direction of families now cooking and socializing after the recently ended drag races. Captain Bob Pearson and First . He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for two terms between 1917 and 1926. 4. These problems, plus a broken chain of communication, caused two experienced Air Canada pilots to leave the ground with only 9,144 of the requisite 20,400 kilograms of fuel, less than half of what they would need to fly the scheduled 2,100 miles from Montreal to Edmonton. Story of Gimli Glider set to take flight on the big screen In this remarkable incident, on board a BA flight to Malaga with 81 passengers, a badly-fitted windscreen panel failed, sucking the captain, Tim Lancaster, halfway out of the cockpit. Michael continues his interview with Captain Bob Pearson and Pearl Dion. Pearson initially thought a fuel pump had failed but soon realized the engines had lost power, and was able to glide the Boeing 767-233 safely to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park airport. When the aircraft is shown taking off, it is a 737-200, as the engines are long and thin, whereas a 767 has wider engines. Working with minimal instruments and hydraulics, and without flaps and spoilers, the crew nurse their crippled plane toward this disused AFB. To have the maximum range and therefore the largest choice of possible landing sites, he needed to fly the 767 at the optimum glide speed. At the start, when the two pilots exit the simulator, they complain to the simulator examiner about "a dumb set of scenarios" and "an impossible set of conditions, who ever dreamed that up". This additional friction helped to slow the airplane and kept it from crashing into the crowds surrounding the runway. The landing was hard and fast - Pearson had to brake so hard he blew two tires, while the . An official certificate recognizing your purchase will be included with your email receipt. He also assisted the blind, setting up specialized comuter programs. Passengers reportedly scribbled notes to loved ones (one, by Charles Capewell, read: "Ma. [13] Captain Pearson was an experienced glider pilot, so he was familiar with flying techniques almost never used in commercial flight. Captain Bob Pearson, who appeared only in the movie Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 (1995) (also known as Freefall: Flight 174) playing an examiner, was actually the real pilot of the doomed Air Canada flight. Pearson decided to execute a forward slip to increase drag and reduce altitude. It was another 26 years before Captain Sully used a similar move to save his flight by landing on the Hudson River in New York City. The captain considered getting the co-pilot to take control but concluded that, given the time available and the challenging conditions, his best course of action was to move his right hand from the power levers on to the yoke to regain control. Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The most heroic airline pilots of all time - The Telegraph The cockpit of a Boeing 767 flight simulator in 1988. The subsequent explosive decompression saw part of the floor at the rear of the cabin give way, severing a control cable and disabling one of the engines. Many people also knew him as the WISUA umpire in chief where he grew the crew to officiate over many west island softball leagues. Chesley Sullenberger III, at the helm of US Airways Flight 1549, managed to land safely on the Hudson River after a flock of Canada geese disabled both the aircrafts engines just 2,818 feet above the ground. [9], At Montreal, Captain Robert "Bob" Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal took over the airplane for Flight 143 to Ottawa and Edmonton. Munro thought the story would be fitting movie. an industry where women are still an extreme minority, part of the planes windshield came loose. Captain Pearson was a highly experienced pilot, having accumulated more than 15,000 flight hours. Fortunately the incident ended happily, with the 46-year-old landing safely. The Boeing 767 belonged to a new generation of aircraft that flew with only a pilot and co-pilot, but Air Canada had not clearly assigned responsibility for supervising the fueling. To test the system, he re-enabled the second channel, at which point the fuel gauges in the cockpit went blank. [9]:41 The density in metric units was 0.803kg/L, so the correct calculation would have been: At the time of the incident, Canada's aviation sector was in the process of converting from Imperial to metric units. Captain Pearson later said that the boys were so close that he could see the looks of sheer terror on their faces as they realized that a large aircraft was bearing down on them. British Airways flight 5290 had taken off from London on its way to Spain on 10 June 1990 when part of the planes windshield came loose and sucked Captain Tim Lancaster out of the plane. She said the story works well for a Hollywood movie because it had such a tremendous ending. To calculate how much fuel the airplane had to take on, he needed to convert the 7682litres of fuel already in the tanks to their equivalent mass in kilograms, subtract that figure from the 22,300kg total fuel that would be needed, and convert that result back into its equivalent volume. The crew also realized they were coming in too quickly and too high towards their improvised 'runway.' Air Canada flight 143 is on its way to Edmonton from Montreal. The loss of power caused the plane's speed to drop alarmingly. The navigational computer required the fuel to be entered in kilograms, but an incorrect conversion from volume to mass was applied, which led the pilots and ground crew to agree that it was carrying enough fuel for the remaining trip. What a wonderful feeling it must be to know that your dedication in training and expertise could result in such a profound outcome. At this point, it was withdrawn from service, and subsequently stored and partially scrapped at the Mojave Air and Space Port in the US federal state of California. Bob Pearson - IMDb An avid gardener, reader, bridge player, Bob was a true friend to many. Part of the decommissioned runway was being used to stage the race. There were 152 people on board and we were all going to die.". He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for two terms between 1917 and 1926. Captain Pearson went on to fly for another dozen years before he retired in 1995 after 38 years as a commercial pilot. Bob was an extremely caring, fair and proud man. With eight years experience in publishing and citations in publications such as CNN, Linnea brings a deep understanding of politics and future aviation tech to her stories. Thirty years after the Gimli Glider incident, they recount the extraordinary flight and share what it felt like to have their professional abilities questioned . Drawing on experience from a similar incident with the same aircraft a month prior, the engineer, in lieu of spare parts, fixed the problem by disabling the second channel and tagging the circuit breaker. The amount of fuel in the tanks of a Boeing 767 is computed by the FQIS and displayed in the cockpit. Following the full repair, the aircraft was returned to service with Air Canada. While the aircraft was being prepared for its return to Edmonton, a maintenance worker decided to investigate the problem with the faulty FQIS. [9]:6465 On the day of the accident, two technicians and two pilots worked on the calculation in Montreal. The plane was badly damaged, and stopped yard from the M11 motorway, but everyone on board survived and Hackett was praised for defying protocol. [7], The incident was caused by a series of issues starting with a failed fuel-quantity indicator sensor (FQIS). This article about an Alberta politician is a stub. The cockpit crew then entered the value into the FMC without recalculating it for metric values. "It was special because we always hear how the Gimli glider landed here, so to meet and fly with him was an honour," said Bautista. This unusual aviation incident earned the aircraft the nickname "Gimli Glider". 23 July 1983 | This Day in Aviation We owe it to all who fly to act on what we have learned and not just let important recommendations gather dust on a shelf., He added: I am still very glad that we were able to save every life in such a sudden and intense crisis for which we had never been specifically trained.. Naturally, there was concern in the cockpit, with the flight engineer exclaiming: "I don't believe it - all four engines have failed!" At 1:21 p.m., over Red Lake, Ontario, the 767 ran out . Captain Bob Pearson, pilot of the soon-to-be auctioned Gimli Glider. Air Canada Flight 143 came to a final stop on the ground 17 minutes after running out of fuel. As soon as the wheels touched down on the runway, Pearson braked hard, skidding and promptly blowing out two of the aircraft's tires. Thanks to everyone for listening to the show and thanks for supporting us on Patreon! Finding a new job with an accident on his record, however, proved difficult, and he rejoined the airline in 2010. Before departure, the engineer informed the pilot of the problem and confirmed that the tanks would have to be verified with a floatstick. [9]:6364 The fueler reported that the density of jet fuel at the time was 1.77, which was in lb/L, since other Air Canada aircraft used lb. During peak periods such as Valentines Day, Memorial Day and most holidays, florists are not always able to keep up to demand. A build-up of ice crystals had caused a restriction in the flow of fuel. Never before had a jumbo commercial aircraft been landed from a free fall. A series of improbable conditions and mishaps led to this moment, each of which contributed to a singular nightmare: a commercial jet having run out of fuel with 69 people on board. With both engines stopped, the system went dead and most of the screens went blank, leaving only a few basic battery-powered emergency flight instruments. Bob Pearson, the real pilot of the "Gimli Glider" (the story that inspired this film), features as the Examiner in the simulator footage at the beginning of the film. C-GAUN was the 47th Boeing 767 off the production line, and had been delivered to Air Canada less than four months previously. On the flight deck were Captain Robert Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal. Repeating the same error, Captain Pearson determined that he had 20,400kg (45,000lb) of fuel and entered this number into the FMC. We have a small problem. Bob Munro was one of the first people on scene. The captain knew "from previous experience" the density of jet fuel in kg/L. "We were about to stall and fall out of the sky," said Captain Peter Burkill in an interview two years later. "It feels like yesterday. We are all doing our damnedest to get them going again. Inside the cockpit of the cruising airliner, Captain Bob Pearson was understandably alarmed at the out-of-the-ordinary beeps that were chiming from his flight computer. He is one of Air Canada's senior pilots and one of their most skilled. Early life [ edit]