On July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143—a Boeing 767—ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet, mid-flight. The cause? A

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On July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143—a Boeing 767—ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet, mid-flight. The cause? A simple yet catastrophic error in unit conversion. Ground crews miscalculated the fuel load using pounds instead of kilograms, resulting in the aircraft taking off with less than half the fuel needed for the journey. What followed was one of the most incredible feats of airmanship in aviation history.

With both engines dead, Captain Bob Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal managed to glide the massive jet over 75 miles to a decommissioned Royal Canadian Air Force base in Gimli, Manitoba. Unbeknownst to them, the runway had been converted into a drag racing strip, and a competition was underway. Miraculously, no one was injured. The aircraft’s safe landing earned it the nickname “The Gimli Glider,” and it remains a textbook example of calm under pressure, aeronautical skill, and the importance of double-checking your units.

,GimliGlider ,AviationHistory ,EngineeringFail ,PilotHeroes
,MetricVsImperial

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