The Gimli Glider Incident
What saved a fuel-starved jet full of people?
4.4 (23)
49 mins
Explore the extraordinary chain of errors that left Air Canada Flight 143 without fuel at 41,000 feet. Discover how Captain Bob Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal turned a powerless Boeing 767 into a glider. Learn about the desperate landing at Gimli and the remarkable survival of all 69 people aboard.
Ep 1:
The Impossible Fuel Math
A brand-new Boeing 767 takes flight with faulty gauges, a lingering metric conversion error, and a fraction of the fuel it needs—setting a catastrophe in motion nobody can see coming.
Ep 2:
Silence at 26,500 Feet
Both engines quit at cruising altitude, screens go dark, and the transponder dies, leaving pilots and controllers racing to calculate an impossible glide to safety.
Ep 3:
The Drag Strip Descent
Fifteen miles short of Winnipeg, the crew gambles on a decommissioned airbase turned drag strip, unaware families, campers, and two kids on bikes are directly in their path.
Ep 4:
Landing Without a Prayer
With no engines, no flaps, and a broken nose gear, Captain Pearson attempts an unheard-of maneuver to bring 69 lives safely back to earth.
Discussions (5)
Christina
Level 10 · 23 hours agoThe metric vs imperial mix up is such a human error to make
Zachariah
Level 6 · 23 hours agoPearson wasnt wrong to trust his crew
Donald
Level 9 · 23 hours agoBlaming Pearson fully is bollocks. Air Canada pulled the flight engineer role to save money then hung the pilots out to dry. One man doing three jobs with blank gauges and wrong training. That's a management disaster not pilot error.
