The Airliner That Ran Out of Fuel Above a Racetrack

1. A Routine Flight Has a Hidden Shortfall

On 23 July 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 departed on a journey toward Edmonton in a Boeing 767. Fuel-quantity equipment problems had complicated preparation. Manual measurements and calculations were used, but a chain of misunderstandings left the aircraft carrying much less fuel than the flight required.

The numbers looked sufficient. The tanks told a different story.

2. The Units Do Not Match

Confusion between pounds and kilograms contributed to the incorrect fuel calculation. The aircraft's metric requirements differed from familiar practices, while procedures and equipment issues made the situation more vulnerable. The investigation found a chain of failures rather than a story that could fairly be assigned to one careless person.

A conversion error had gained the weight of an entire flight.

3. The Warnings Become Real

During the flight, fuel warnings appeared and the crew began responding to the developing emergency. Then an engine stopped. The initial symptoms could have suggested a technical fault, but the loss of power revealed a much more urgent problem than an unreliable indication on a panel.

The gauge problem had become an engine problem.

4. Both Engines Fall Silent

The second engine also stopped, leaving the aircraft without normal engine power at cruising altitude. The 767 could still glide, but systems and available options changed sharply. Captain Bob Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal had to manage the descent while finding somewhere the powerless aircraft could reach.

The airliner had become a very large glider.

5. Limited Power, Limited Time

An emergency ram-air turbine provided some hydraulic power, helping the crew retain essential control. It did not restore the aircraft to normal operation or remove the need to land. Every calculation about distance and descent now mattered because the crew could not add engine thrust to correct a bad choice.

The next runway had to be inside the glide, not merely nearby.

6. A Familiar Place Enters the Plan

Quintal knew a former military airfield at Gimli, Manitoba. It offered a possible landing site closer than the alternatives under consideration. What the crew could not treat as an ordinary active airport was the way part of the old facility had changed since its military use.

The runway existed, but its job description had been rewritten.

7. The Airfield Is Hosting Other Activity

Part of Gimli had become a motorsport venue, with people on the ground. As the aircraft approached, the crew faced a landing environment very different from a prepared commercial runway. The emergency therefore involved avoiding danger to people below as well as bringing those on board safely to a stop.

The intended landing strip was also somebody else's day out.

8. The Crew Manages the Descent

Pearson used gliding experience and a sideslip to adjust the approach, while the crew worked through the aircraft's limitations. The landing gear presented further complications. With no ordinary go-around available, the approach demanded a sequence of decisions whose consequences could not be postponed to another circuit.

This landing attempt did not include an easy second try.

9. The Aircraft Stops

The aircraft landed at Gimli, with the nose gear collapsing and the nose contacting the runway. Everyone aboard survived, although there were injuries during the event and evacuation. The outcome also avoided fatalities on the ground, turning a severe emergency into one of aviation's best-known successful forced landings.

The runway had run out of normality before the aircraft ran out of space.

10. The Investigation Looks Backward

The aircraft became known as the Gimli Glider and later returned to service after repairs. The inquiry examined maintenance, communication, procedures and fuel calculations. The remarkable landing should not conceal those earlier failures: the survival story is powerful partly because so many preventable problems had already lined up.

The crew saved the flight. The report asked why it needed saving.

Sources

• Wikipedia contributors: Gimli Glider
• Board of Inquiry: Air Canada Flight 143 final report, hosted by FAA