![]() Much to their dismay, no such section existed, presumably because a simultaneous engine failure had been too ridiculous for Boeing engineers to contemplate.īasically, the story was that the plane’s fuel gauges were non-functional prior to takeoff (apparently a common occurrence at the time which should have been sufficient to ground the plane until it was fixed), and the ground crew measured the fuel load manually (in Montreal and again in Ottawa), figuring that would be enough. This writeup last year at Damn Interesting gives it a shot, though:Īfter repeated unsuccessful attempts to restart the stalled engines, Pearson and Quintal once again consulted the 767 emergency manual, this time for advice on an unpowered landing. There really isn’t a way to overstate how awesome this story is. ![]() The CBC also mentions a mural that honours the flight being unveiled. Two kids try to outrun a landing plane on their bikes (dramatization image from Mayday) As luck would have it, the plane’s nose gear collapsed (without power it hadn’t been lowered properly and wasn’t locked in place), slowing it down and keeping it from running anyone over. The kids, being kids, panicked and pedalled as fast as they could on their bikes away from the plane, not rationally concluding that there’s no way a bicycle is going to outrun a landing 767. With no engines and no room to change course, they had no choice but to land anyway. ![]() Unfortunately, the captain and his copilot didn’t know that and were shocked to find people gathered on their emergency landing strip. The boys were part of a family day outing at an old runway that had been converted into a racetrack. ![]() The Winnipeg Free Press has a story about the captain of that flight, Bob Pearson, meeting the two boys he almost ran down with his barely-controllable airplane on July 23, 1983. It was 25 years ago this week that Air Canada Flight 143, en route from Montreal to Edmonton (via Ottawa), ran out of fuel above western Ontario and had to make an emergency no-engine landing on what used to be a runway at a small airport in Gimli, Manitoba. Air Canada plane takes off after repairs from Gimli, Manitoba (from CBC TV report) ![]()
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