The Gimli Glider

A wide-body jet goes quiet at 41,000 feet, the cockpit starts losing systems, and the crew has to fly a Boeing 767 like a glider with no engines. That sounds impossible until you trace the real-world chain behind Air Canada Flight 143, the incident aviation history now calls the Gimli Glider. We walk through how a routine day turns into a high-stakes emergency when a faulty Fuel Quantity Indicating System (FQIS) forces manual checks, and a simple units problem quietly sets the trap.

We dig into the 1983 context: Air Canada’s brand-new “high tech” 767 fleet, the learning curve of a two-person cockpit, and the operational shift from pounds to kilograms for fuel. Then we follow the maintenance handoffs and decisions that leave the fuel gauges blank, pushing the crew toward dripstick measurements and calculations that look reasonable but are built on the wrong conversion. It’s a tight, practical story about aviation safety, redundancy, and how miscommunication can be just as dangerous as hardware failure.

From the first low fuel pressure warnings to the moment both engines flame out, we break down what the crew loses when the generators stop: electrical power, key instruments, and even transponder visibility to ATC. You’ll hear how the ram air turbine restores limited hydraulic control, why diverting becomes a race against glide distance, and how Captain Bob Pearson’s glider experience shapes an unconventional approach, including a sideslip, to reach Gimli only to find a decommissioned runway turned motorsports drag strip with people on it.

If you like detailed air disaster stories, cockpit decision-making, and the small math errors that can threaten a 300-seat aircraft, you’ll get a lot from this one. Subscribe for more, share the episode with a friend, and leave a rating or review so more listeners can find the show.

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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/

Transcript

A Glider Story With A Twist

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Flying a glider sounds like an interesting time. Getting launched into the air, no engines, no noise, just you, the glider, and the wind beneath your wings. Sure, in the words of Buzz Lightyear, you're falling with style, but by hitting the right updrafts and currents you can stay up in the air for hours. Sounds great, especially in a lightweight glider built for it. What doesn't sound like fun though, is trying to do the same thing in something like say a 767. Like on July 23rd, 1983, when a 767 ran out of fuel and the pilots had to bring the plane down with no engines and no power. So, what happened?

Meet Flight 143 And The Sponsor

SPEAKER_00 0:45

I'm Andrew, and this is History's A Disaster. Tonight, we're diving into Air Canada Flight 143, the flight more famously called the Gimli Glider. And tonight's episode is brought to you by the Glittering Gliding Girls. Are you planning a corporate event, a birthday party, wedding reception, or maybe a family reunion? Then look no further. The Glittering Gliding Girls are twelve talented Czechoslovakian dancers who have dedicated their lives to perfecting the art of dance. And also to finding cheap sequin fabric not made in Russia. They perform everything from ballroom to contemporary, jazz to tap. They performed at venues across the world, including several no star hotels, one very enthusiastic barn, and a Denny's in Soho that still hasn't fully recovered. Full legal disclosure the glittering gliding girls cannot be held responsible for spontaneous audience participation, guests attempting to join the finale, sequence in the punch bowl, uncontrollable foot tapping in otherwise solemn moments, or one specific pose in Act 2 that has been described as genuinely alarming and somehow also deeply moving. Side effects of attending a glittering gliding girls performance may include joy, mild dizziness, and an inexplicable desire to take up dance classes, and buying way too many glittery items online after 11 p.m.

The New 767 And Metric Fuel

SPEAKER_00 2:20

In 1982, Boeing released the High Tech 767, a wide-body twin jet capable of carrying around 300 passengers, depending on which variant we're talking about. It was packed down with all kinds of high-tech sensors and systems which automated a lot of the flight management functions on the plane, which completely eliminated the need for a flight engineer, which meant it could be flown with only a two-man crew instead of three. CRT color displays replaced the old bulky analog dials and gauges, making everything easier to see and read at a glance. By mid-1983, Air Canada had begun adding the new 767 to its fleet. Being a new highly advanced machine, it came with a bit of a learning curve, not just for the pilots who would be flying it, but for the mechanics and support crews that had to service the plane. These new color displays weren't that big of an adjustment for the pilots, but the switch to a two-man crew was. While most of the systems were now being automated, they would have one less person in the cockpit, so they would have to split up new responsibilities and decide who was responsible for what. The mechanics would have new parts and systems to learn and deal with. For the refueling crews, they would have one small, seemingly insignificant change. The 767 was the first plane whose fuel was weighed in kilograms and not pounds, which is a way bigger deal than it may seem at first glance. When a plane gets refueled, the refueling crew measures the fuel by volume, meaning the refueling truck holds X gallons of fuel. However, an airplane measures fuel by mass, meaning it holds X pounds or kilograms of fuel. So they have formulas they use to figure out how much fuel they need to load up the plane. And due to how heavy fuel is, they don't just fill the plane all the way up when they refuel. The extra weight would just cause the plane to burn more of it. So they figure out how much fuel is needed to get from point A to point B, plus a little extra just in case. Now, this is where the difference between pounds and kilograms comes in. There's roughly two pounds in a kilogram, meaning if someone were to fuck up and use the wrong formula like figuring they needed a thousand pounds instead of a thousand kilograms, they would only have about half the fuel they actually needed, which shouldn't be an issue with all the fancy dancy high-tech shit on the plane. Unless, of course, if something was, oh I don't know, broken. Which brings us to July 23rd, 1983. Captain Bob Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintel took over the 767 in Montreal for a regular domestic flight to Ottawa and Edmonton. Both pilots had extensive flight hours, however, with the 767 being so new, they had around 200 flight hours between them, and the plane they would be flying on had less than 150 hours on it. Also on board were six flight attendants and 61 passengers,

The Fuel Gauge Failure Chain

SPEAKER_00 5:38

far less than the 300 the plane was able to carry. Also on board was a defective fuel gauge, known as a FQIS, or fuel quantity indicating system. Since it was defective, they had to rely on manually checking the fuel levels in the two fuel tanks in the wings and the one in the belly with a dripstick test. A procedure that took nearly an hour to complete and required some calculations to determine fuel levels. So a little bit about this fuel gauge. Under normal operations, this fuel gauge runs on two channels, channel 1 and channel 2. Together, both of these channels constantly monitor the fuel levels in all three tanks and sends that information to the display in the cockpit. However, if one channel were to go out for some reason or the signals were different, it could blank out the entire system. On July 22nd, a duty engineer was checking out the fuel gauges after a pilot complained about them not working. The display was completely blank. This was something the engineer had run across before and knew that if there was a faulty signal, it could blank out the entire thing, so he just needed to find the fault and isolate it. So after a quick check, he found the problem on channel 2 and disconnected it by pulling the circuit breaker and tagging it out and making a note of it in the maintenance logs. After isolating the signal, the gauges came back online. But since it was only running on one channel, they had to verify the readings were correct by doing the dripstick test. On an airplane, there always has to be some kind of redundancy or backup if something goes out, and that's what this dripstick test was. After doing this test, it came back that the dripstick numbers matched the numbers displayed in the cockpit. So they refueled and went about their business and flew on to Montreal. Now back on the 23rd, when Captain Pearson took over the plane and was told about the problem, he misunderstood what exactly was wrong with the gauge and believed it was completely out the entire time, that it didn't work at all. And that was why the drip test was needed. During this handoff between the two captains, another engineer wanted to do his own check on the systems, so he put the circuit breaker back in and powered up channel 2 again, which completely shut off the fuel gauge. So he wanted to replace it completely, but they didn't have the part available, and it would have to wait for the plane to get to Edmonton before it could be fixed. During this, the engineer got called away by the refueling crew and for whatever reason does not pull the circuit breaker, which would have turned off channel 2 and turned the fuel gauge back on. So it just gets left blank as he goes out to meet the refuelers and start the drip test. So when Captain Pearson gets into the cockpit and sees the blank gauge and looks at the notes in the logs, he doesn't think much of it because as far as he knows, he's already aware of the situation. So he checks the minimal equipment list. A list that says this is the bare minimum you have to have in order to fly, and sees that according to this list, they can fly as long as they have one fuel indicator working. But sometimes they can make exceptions to these lists based on different factors. Not so much nowadays, but back then things were a little different. So now Pearson believed that's what was happening here. The previous pilots had been allowed to fly without the gauges, and he'd be okay to fly without them too. And none of those things, as it turned out, were true. The previous pilots had a completely different problem with the gauge than what he was dealing with, and there had been no exceptions made. So they finished the drip test, and from those numbers, they determined how much fuel they need to make it to Edmonton with a stop in Ottawa in between. Pearson

The Wrong Math And A Normal Takeoff

SPEAKER_00 9:44

wanted enough fuel to make the flight without having to refuel in Ottawa. So they did their little calculations and went about refueling the plane. However, they fucked up and used the wrong formula. They used the formula for pounds instead of kilograms, a huge error that left them with less than half of the fuel they need to reach Edmonton. But after refueling, they took off for Ottawa and made it there just fine. They even did another dripstick test while in Ottawa. But did they catch their error? Nope. They made the same miscalculations and came up with everything was just fine. They had enough fuel to get to Edmonton, so they took off again without refueling. And everything was going great. At first, takeoff was perfect, and they made it to an altitude of 41,000

Low Fuel Warnings Become Total Silence

SPEAKER_00 10:35

feet. Then things started to go downhill when the low fuel pressure warning started going off on the left-hand fuel system. They originally thought it was a fuel pump problem and just turned off the alarm. They figured in level flight the engine would be gravity fed and it wouldn't be an issue. However, within moments, they got another low pressure warning on the right-hand fuel system, which started causing some concerns given the situation with the fuel gauge. So they lowered their altitude to 35,000 feet and diverted to Winnipeg, which was only 120 miles away. During the descent, the left engine went dead. They tried to get it restarted as they contacted Winnipeg Air Traffic Control and prepared for a single engine landing. However, instead of restarting, the right engine went dead, causing multiple alarms in the cockpit to start going off. And here's the downside to all that fancy dancy high-tech stuff. The engines running is what supplies electricity to the whole plane. So no engines means no electricity, which means all but a few battery backup gauges are gone. And along with the gauges being gone, they lost their transponder. With all these out, the pilots had no idea on their speed or altitude, and without their transponder, air traffic control can't see them on their secondary radar, which is based entirely on reading transponders. So air traffic control would have to dig out their primary radar to see where the plane was at. They also lost power to the hydraulic system, but they had a backup for this. With the loss of power, a RAM air turbine pops out of the belly of the plane. The wind rushing past the plane spins the large propeller of the turbine, which turns into power to run the hydraulic systems, so the pilots would at least have some control over the plane. They could at least turn the plane as it glided towards the ground, even if they had no way to indicate speed or altitude. They would have to rely heavily on air traffic control for guidance on where to go. Fortunately, Pearson was a much experienced glider pilot, so he had some semblance of a clue on how to fly a plane with no engines. Something that really isn't that common in commercial aviation. Flying on a single engine is routinely taught for emergencies, but no engine training wasn't really a thing. The size and weight of a regular plane versus a glider is a huge. So there's not much of a crossover in skills there. But Pearson was putting his skills to use to determine how far they could go at their current height and estimated speed.

Choosing Gimli And Flying Sideways

SPEAKER_00 13:27

After some back and forth, it was eventually decided the closest airfield to them was at Gimli, a now decommissioned Air Force base that First Officer Quintel had once served at and was pretty familiar with. The only problem was it was decommissioned so they would have no support on the ground if they crashed, and no one knew what its current state was. They especially didn't know the airfield was now Gimli Motorsports Park and that the runway had been converted to a drag strip, or that there was currently dozens of people camping out along the drag strip that the now silent plane was gliding towards. As they got closer to Gimli, more problems started popping up. They realized they were coming in too high and way too fast. They needed to slow down to reduce the risk of running off the end of the runway. And since the hydraulics were all but out, they couldn't use the flats like they normally would to reduce speed. So they needed a new plan. They briefly considered a 360 degree turn to reduce speed and altitude, but fearing they didn't have the altitude or time to accomplish this, the idea was just as quickly rejected. So Pearson made the decision to pull a side slip to slow the plane down. And this is done by crossing the controls, applying the rudder in one direction and ailrons in the other direction. This is something commonly used in gliders and light aircraft, which will cause them to descend quickly without increasing forward speed. It's not something normally done in large aircraft. Okay, so what all this means is he's going to use the ailrons in the wings to bank the plane in one direction while turning the rudder in the tail of the plane in the opposite direction. This turns the plane sideways while still moving in the same direction. They're traveling broadside into the wind, which increases the drag on the plane and slows it down. Back in the cabin, the flight attendants are taking care of the passengers who are holding up pretty well, especially considering they're flying sideways and the plane has gone into such a steep bank that the only thing visible out of one side of the plane is the ground and it's looking way too close for comfort. The downside to performing the side slip is it cuts off the airflow to the turbine, and the plane becomes even harder to control when they straighten the plane out as they are about to attempt the landing. With that problem down, they now face the next one.

Hard Landing On A Drag Strip

SPEAKER_00 16:06

With the loss of power, they had to manually drop the landing gear and rely on a gravity drop for them to lock into place. While the heavier main landing gear dropped and locked into position, the nose gear, being much lighter, failed to drop down and lock into place, which would turn out to be a good thing. At the former airfield, no one could hear the plane coming. No one except for two boys riding their bikes down the strip. They were way too close when the plane started to touch down. The force of coming into contact with the former runway blew two tires on the main landing gear. The unlocked nose gear crumpled as it came into contact with the road. The nose of the plane smacked down into the road, grinding into the asphalt as it was propelled down the drag strip. The pilots could clearly see the terror on the boys' faces as they tried to flee. They would make it to safety as the plane ground its way towards them. The nose of the plane being ground against the drag strip turned out to be a good thing as it helped to increase the friction and slow the plane down. They made it halfway down the strip when they came off to a guardrail installed along the side. They were able to alternate the power to the brakes to guide the plane to the rail and grind against it, further slowing the plane down and bringing it to a stop well before the plane could get near the crowds of people camping at the drag strip. With all the heat and smoke generated from the landing, there was a real fear of a fire breaking out. So the flight crew moved quickly to get everyone off the plane. The emergency slides were deployed and everyone made it off the plane. The rear slides, however, didn't quite make it to the ground due to the angle of the plane. This led to some minor injuries when passengers hit the roadway. Ten people received minor scrates and bruises during the exit, but that would be the extent of the injuries from the crash. As passengers were escaping the plane, people that had been camping ran toward the stock plane with fire extinguishers in hand. They worked

Investigation Blame And Pilot Legacy

SPEAKER_00 18:10

with the pilots spraying down the overheated metal to prevent a fire from taking hold. During the following investigation, the Canadian Aviation Safety Board put part of the blame on Air Canada for not having enough spare parts on hand, and their training was found lacking. While they praised the pilots for their skills in bringing the plane down, they would also share in the blame for fucking up the calculations that led to the whole thing in the first place during Air Canada's own investigation. Captain Pearson got demoted for six months and First Officer Quintel received a two-week suspension. Three people in maintenance were also suspended. Both pilots appealed their suspension and one eventually returning to work for Air Canada. In 1985, they were awarded the first ever Federation Aeronautic International Diploma for Outstanding Airmanship. Eventually, the events surrounding the accident would be used in flight simulators to help in training in Vancouver. While many tried several times to get through it, they all ended in crashes, which just shows how good of a pilot Pearson actually was. Quintel would be promoted to captain in 1989. Pearson remained with Air Canada for 10 years before moving to fly for Asiana Airlines. He eventually retired in 1995. Maurice Quintel died at the age of 68 on September 24, 2015 in Quebec. After the accident, the plane was temporarily patched up at Gimli and flew out two days later to be fully repaired at a maintenance base in Winnipeg. It would return to service with Air Canada after a full repair. And after 20 years of flying, the now nicknamed Gimli Glider was retired from service in January 2008. The final flight was captained by Jean Mark Ballinger, a former head of the Air Canada Pilots Association. Also on that final flight was Captains Pearson and Quintle and three of the six flight attendants from the original Flight 143. On July 23, 2008, the 25th anniversary of the accident, Pearson and Quintel were celebrated in a parade in Gimli and a mural was dedicated to commemorate the landing. In April 2013, the Gimli Glider was put up for auction with an estimated price of $3 million Canadian. However, bidding would only reach $425,000 and went unsold. Since it went unsold, it would eventually be scrapped in early 2014, and parts of the fuselage were turned into 10,000 numbered luggage tags, which went up for sale from a California company Moto Art under the product name Plane Tags. In June of 2017, a permanent museum exhibit of the event opened in Gimli. The exhibit includes a cockpit's flight simulator and as of July 2017, sold memorabilia. On June 27, 2025, the Gimli Glider Exhibit Museum displayed the recently recovered and transported cockpit in a ceremony that reunited it with Captain Bob Pearson. And that was Air Canada Flight 143, the Gimli Glider.

Where The Gimli Glider Ends Up

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Thanks for listening, and if you liked the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your Apple Joyce. And you can reach out to the show at historiesandisaster at gmail.com with questions, comments, or suggestions. As well as following the show on social media like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever. And share the episode. Your friends will love it. And remember, if your adopted penguin suddenly loses all his feathers, don't panic. This catastrophic molt is completely normal and they'll get their feathers back shortly. So stay calm and chase that dream. Live for today, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Thanks and goodbye.