I was there that day, the boys on the bikes came looking for us, “a plane has crashed”, there had been zero noise and we expected it to be a small private plane, total shock to see a wide body jet sitting there. We spent time administering first aid to the passengers who had road rash after hitting the tarmac from the escape chutes. Our trophies for the 1983 road racing season were ceramic plaques with the plane’s image on them.

@stitch626aloha

2 жыл бұрын

Mr. Lloyd, My hat is doffed to you, My Good Sir. You did the Good Deed by being there and administering aid.

@erictaylor5462

2 жыл бұрын

Now *THAT* is a great story. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for helping.

@topturretgunner

2 жыл бұрын

What a story. Thank God that there was an experienced glider pilot at the controls of that unlikely glider.

@janaburritt6939

Жыл бұрын

What a great memory 🤗

@Louis-qi1gz

Жыл бұрын

Me and my best friend was against the metric system in middle school the teachers told us we were rebels,, but after that happened we called them dummies 🤣

I remember when this happened. There was an editorial cartoon out shortly after this happened. Ground crewman on top of the wing asking his buddy 'how many feet in a litre?'.

@st3v3b0b7

2 жыл бұрын

In 1999 NASA lost its $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because spacecraft engineers failed to convert from English to metric measurements.

@martinoamello3017

2 жыл бұрын

Almost like W asking about Brazilians.. Remind me again, how many's a brazillian?

@papanam4267

2 жыл бұрын

Ha! Ha! Good one!

@MagnumMike44

2 жыл бұрын

LOL at the question "how many feet in a litre?" 😄

@UncleKennysPlace

2 жыл бұрын

@@martinoamello3017 Ha, a Brazilian is a type of, um, haircut.

I remember reading about this when it happened and you missed one small but important point. The spectators at the race had their backs to the aircrafts approach, and since it was coming in silently, didn't realize the danger. Of the two boys with bicycles you mentioned, who saw the plane coming in, one DID realize the danger and began pedaling down the runway as fast as he could, screaming out warnings as he went. He was credited with clearing the spectators from the area where the plane finally came to a stop. Who knows how many might have died if it hadn't been for his quick thinking. He should be remembered as well.

@Hellosecsi

2 жыл бұрын

That would have been some spectacular video to see.

@mikecamrcplus3057

2 жыл бұрын

That little boy many years later while driving on the highway to Gimli 40 minutes south, which just so happened to be beside St Andrews airport had it happen again. A small plane landed on the highway in an emergency right in front of his vehicle. He pulled over and gave assistance. What are the odds? lol

@zuzoscorner

5 ай бұрын

@@mikecamrcplus3057 Sounds like something you get form Hitchhikers gudie to th galaxy kind of odds

@billolsen4360

3 ай бұрын

@@mikecamrcplus3057 Now there's a man who's going to keep looking up the rest of his days.

One of my friends was living and working in Manitoba at the time of the incident. At the time he was into drag racing and he was actually at the old RCAF landing strip at the time the incident, he was one of the people who helped extinguish the minor fire that started from the plane landing with the nose wheel not deployed correctly. To prove that the world is a small place a number of years ago I met the pilot of the "Gimli Glider", Bob Pearson. I talked to Mr Pearson for some time about the whole incident and he was quite friendly and informative. I remember him saying that people have called him a hero for saving the plane and all the passengers, but he stated that he was also saving himself!

@stevewixom9311

2 жыл бұрын

A bit of honesty is always so refreshing lol

@cowboybob7093

2 жыл бұрын

On a tiny scale - One reason I didn't have trouble teaching my kids how to drive was I knew "self preservation" was a reliable instinct. #humor

@cbroz7492

Жыл бұрын

..thevis a line in (IIRC) Martin Caiden's book The High and the Mighty' to.that very point...when asked if he was concerned with getting the passengers safely to their destination...he reply that he was more concerned about getting HIS ass there safely. .if he got there safely. it followed they the passengers would also...

@daerdevvyl4314

6 ай бұрын

That also reminds me of the one pilot in Catch-22. Everybody wants to fly with him because he's absolutely terrified of being shot down, so he zigs and zags, and climbs and dives, so unpredictably that he makes the plane a very difficult target.

When the plane was retired and flown down south, the Americian Military ATC allowed the plane to buzz the tower before landing. A very rare thing.

@RayleighCriterion

2 жыл бұрын

This airframe definately earned that.

As an aircraft maintenance instructor of over 30 years, I have used this occurrence as an example of improper use of an MEL and knowledge of the systems maintenance staff work on. Thanks for keeping the story alive. It has several great lessons for staff and management.

Gloin is a dwarf in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, his son Gimli is a dwarf in JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, it's fantasy that deserves to be remembered.

@ExperimentIV

2 жыл бұрын

and it’s called Gimli because Manitoba has a looooot of people of icelandic descent

@Sleeping_Insomiac

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I was looking for this comment!

I believe Air Canada's best pilots tried that landing in the Sim and crashed everytime. The airmanship displayed that day was superb!

My first time out drag racing at Gimli a few years ago, I parked my car beside another racer who was one of the kids on the bikes during the landing. It's a small strange world.

I amazed nobody was killed or seriously hurt... truly incredible! The survival of the people aboard the Air Canada flight is a testimony to the skill of the aircrew.

I remember learning forward slips to land while too high on final. My instructor told me about this. My man slipped a 767 and saved every person. The flight crew are heroes.

@solracer66

2 жыл бұрын

One of the aircraft I took my initial flight training in was a 7AC Champ which had no flaps so side-slipping was required. I rather enjoyed doing it but my instructor was not amused when I did that in a Cessna 150 once in lieu of using the flaps, lol.

@Chris_at_Home

2 жыл бұрын

I had a 7ECA Champ that didn’t have flaps so slips were normal procedure to loose altitude rapidly.

@2lotusman851

2 жыл бұрын

@@solracer66 My instructor had me paractice slips -- just it case the flaps (electric) pooped out. Also fly around using just rudder instead of ailerons. Also what to do in case the instrument panel went dark, at night. Stalls, etc. Usual stuff. Important thing is not to get rattled, or excited.

@solracer66

2 жыл бұрын

@@2lotusman851 I practiced all that as well plus spin training also. I was nervous about that but after doing something like 25 of them I could recover the 152 in half a turn and 200' of altitude but most importantly had trained my mind that with stalls/spins putting the nose down is the safe thing to do so I wouldn't do the wrong thing in a panic situation.

The Gimli Glider "incident" is mandatory content in any aviation failure analysis for SO many reasons. That photo of drivers in their race cars with a 767, nose down, looming over them is epic. And to imagine that that plane flew for another 25yrs speaks so much. I can only imagine Pearson's call to "the company" afterwards, "Yeah, we came up short of Edmonton, but we're all good boys. I need 1/2 a dozen GreyHounds and the same mechanics, stat. I'll stay where I'm from, you come where I'm to.

I’ve been an official with the Winnipeg Sports Car Club for about 20 years. While I was not there for this, I know people who were there. One of the two kids that were riding their bikes that day (and had to get out of the way) had an interesting story to tell many years later. A while back (10-15 years?) he was travelling on a highway just north of Winnipeg. This highway travels by a small, but busy airport that did a lot of flight training. As he drove along, a small plane on a training flight had problems, and landed on the highway behind him. He had to go into the ditch to get out of the way. 🙂

@homomorphic

2 жыл бұрын

If it is even remotely busy then that's St. Andrew's airport about 40 minutes south of gimli and that's where I got my private pilot certification. Of course, I live in SoCal now so definition of busy airport is a little different here.

@Scaliad

2 жыл бұрын

Always in the way, but always quick to get out of it...

@Slide100

2 жыл бұрын

@@homomorphic Ding! Ding! Ding! Got it in one. 🙂 He was on Hwy 9 just to the east of St. Andrews.

@brett4264

2 жыл бұрын

That kid had a better chance of being struck by lightning twice!

@cva1122

2 жыл бұрын

Many other documentaries mention an airbase converted into a drag strip and drag races were being held that day. I've heard that they were autocross races, not drag. The photo at 12:22 looks like some sort of formula class. Anyone know what type of races were being hosted at Gimli that day?

Gimli, Manitoba, was named by settlers who came from Iceland. J. R. R. Tolkien took the Dwarves' names from the _Dvergatal_ section of the _Völuspá,_ one of the poems in the _Poetic Edda,_ which originated in Iceland. 😺

Another Glider flight... The Azores Glider. Air Transat Flight 236 took off from Toronto, Canada, bound for Lisbon, Portugal, on August 24, 2001. A fractured fuel line left the plane with no fuel and both engines flamed out over the Atlantic. Pilot Robert Piché, brought the plane in for a hard landing at Lajes Airport on Terceira Island, Azores. This turned out to be the longest unpowered glide of a passenger airliner in history. Everyone survived.

@simonrancourt7834

Жыл бұрын

A movie was made on the event and captain Piché's life. kzread.info/dash/bejne/mpapqMujic2uo6w.html

@markmh835

Жыл бұрын

Wow! What a horrifying incident -- and I had never heard of it. That would make a great movie.

@halon7476

8 ай бұрын

I remember this, it was about 2 weeks before September 11th

Read this story a while ago, and aside from everything that went wrong, there was just enough bits of good luck that aligned in their favour to bring it to a safe conclusion.

@philvanderlaan5942

2 жыл бұрын

Disasters are always a chain of failures. ( I could name a certain ship , but I won’t) Miracles are a chain of failures with one or two links broken by luck or skill.

@janaburritt6939

2 жыл бұрын

God was with them

@janaburritt6939

2 жыл бұрын

God was with them

@trooperdgb9722

2 жыл бұрын

Some luck...lots of skill!

@philvanderlaan5942

2 жыл бұрын

@@trooperdgb9722 I can’t remember when it was but there was a dc-10 that lost all hydraulics and could only be flown by varying the engine thrust they happened to have a dc-10 instructor pilot flying as a passenger who helped. Most crew and passengers survived and in the accident investigation the flight was simulated over a hundred times and every time there was a catastrophic crash that no one could have survived.

I used to use this as a chemistry teacher to illustrate the importance of paying attention to units (gallons/liters or pounds/kilograms) while doing any conversion. If the units don’t cancel out correctly…..something is definitely wrong! This could have been easily avoided, in hindsight.

I was living there and my father was the rcmp in charge. He was first on scene as he was driving by airport when call came in plane was crashing. He watched it land. What a day!

I've seen the number of specials on the Gimli Glider but I knew the history guy would come through with something I didn't already know. He did. The maintenance crew running out of gas. Classic. Well done. Mr history guy

In 1970, I had a similar experience piloting a YO-3 recon aircraft (truly the first stealth military aircraft) over North Vietnam. I had just reached altitude of 3000 feet, when the aircraft started to shake like a pop corn machine. The tachometer would red line and then zero.I reduced both power and manifold pressure and the extreme vibration stopped, but no thrust. I slowly increased power and the vibrations became so extreme,I thought the canopy was going to blow off. I had a brief chat with the SO in the front seat informing him we might have to bailout. I feathered the prop, activated my emergency transponder and signaled MAYDAY. I was just about to jettison the canopy (at night over NV) when I took a glanced at my instruments. The O-3 was maintaining altitude but with low ground speed. I was gliding. The O-3 was built on a glider frame but could I limp back to base flying over the DMZ ? For 35 minutes I dived and soared finally arriving. I signaled a dead stick landing. SNAFU! An O-2 taxied in the runup area. I signaled a third time and a green light appeared at the tower. I lowered my under-carriage and was making a good approach when the 0-2 taxied where I had intended to touchdown. I prepared myself for a crashing landing on the muddy grounds to the right. At the very last second, the O-2 started his takeoff roll. I was so close on his tail, I CLOUD SEE HIS AVIONICs panel all lit up. That is not the end. I had read about wind shears, but never encounter one, I anticipated making a three point landing but when I flared out, the 0-3 porpoise Back into the air. This happened two more times. Finally, running out of runway, I lowered the flaps to 30 degrees and turned the master switch off. Touch down, but I had to press the brakes hard resulting in a skid into the soft mud, finally stopping. There was a firetruck and a meatwagión right behind the aircraft. The first thing I said "I need a GD drink". One medic had a flask of Old Crow. The best swig I have ever had! Verdict? Contaminated AVGAS. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YO-3_Quiet_Star

@mattmichael6792

2 жыл бұрын

Many times I’ve flown the Schweizer 2-32 sailplane that your recon machine was based on. An excellent glider with beautiful handling.

@BobJones-dq9mx

2 жыл бұрын

Commented on Turning Point: Lam Son 719 Please check first engine failure

@joshuanishanthchristian5217

2 жыл бұрын

Fascinating story. I had no idea an aircraft like the YO-3 even existed till now! Pretty rare machine, even back then!

@BobJones-dq9mx

2 жыл бұрын

@@joshuanishanthchristian5217 I have plenty of stories.

@Grumman_HellCat_F6F

2 жыл бұрын

Well done Sir. Just as good as the gimli story.

The Gimli Glider story has long been famous amongst us aviators... it is nice to know the rest of the story... and you did an excellent job of telling it to us. Thank you very much!!

@tommissouri4871

2 жыл бұрын

Among road racers, too, thanks to AutoWeek.

Well you have most of the story correct. I was working at AC at the time and an old mechanic (Bill) told us the next morning exactly what had happened. It took many months for AC to admit what happened. Bill told us the pilots had the correct number (in weight) except they had pounds instead of KG, which is why they got about half way from Ottawa to Edmonton. This aircraft was purchased by PWA (one of two 767's with metric systems). The airline was in financial trouble, and sold these two aircraft to AC, who had bought 30 767's in Imperial systems. AC's lack of awareness, lack of training etc that came out later was the flaw that allowed this to happen. The pilots were confused by the strangely worded error message about a fuel pump. Bill's friend was on the plane and in the cockpit. He was looking up the error message in a manual when several other fuel pump failure messages came up. The pilot said, "never mind, I know what it is"... there was no fuel to pump. With that the engines shut down and 35 miles from WPG airport was too far. Gimli was nearby and the rest was a very great relief that no one was hurt. The plane flew for another 30 years. AC finally admitted that the pilots were not to blame, and reinstated them (with an award). And after that, the Gimli Glider became history!

A pilot's definition of impeccable might be different from the common understanding. My WWII pilot of a grandfather wrote in his memories: a good landing is one you can walk away from on your own legs, a perfect landing is one where the aircraft can be reused.

@coldlakealta4043

Жыл бұрын

my Dad flew for the RCAF in WWII. He told the same 2 stories many times - especially when I cracked up my Mom's VW Beetle.

Had the pilot not been an experienced glider pilot, this might have been a tragedy. Good on you mate!!

As someone who grew up listening to Paul Harvey, can I just say I love your presentation style!

@rogertulk8607

2 жыл бұрын

Now you know the rest of the story.

@cherokee43v6

2 жыл бұрын

@@rogertulk8607 Good Day!

Mentour Pilot has an excellent and thorough analysis of this event from the point of view of an experienced commercial pilot.

@jamesengland7461

2 жыл бұрын

a great complement to this one

*Pilots land plane without engines, saving many lives onboard* ATC: 'Still only counts as one!'

My grandparents had vacation property in Gimli (my grandfather had trained pilots there during the War) and Bob Pearson had a farm near my childhood home (North Glengarry, Ontario).

@bobpotts9993

2 жыл бұрын

Bullshit

@papanam4267

2 жыл бұрын

What a coincidence! Your connections are uncanny.

Being from Winnipeg, I've heard this story countless times. Yet, I never get tired of hearing it. It's just incredible airmanship.

@josephstevens9888

2 жыл бұрын

I amazed nobody was killed or seriously hurt... truly incredible!

@skorochemik

9 ай бұрын

incredible airmanship combined with incredible incompetence

I thought I knew this whole story, but in fact I had no idea about the hilariously complex comedy of errors that led to the insufficient fuel. Thank you for detailing all the facts.

As with all incidents I've come across in my 30+ years in aviation it's rarely just a single item that causes a mishap or accident. Multiple things go wrong or are overlooked that snowball into a catastrophe. Another quality video on your part! One small thing, the FQI is called the Fuel QUANTITY Indicator. Cheers!

@wilfdarr

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly right: it's referred to as the "Swiss cheese model" where several steps have to have an error to precipitate the accident: if just one step eliminated the error most people wouldn't even know how close they came to their end!

@orbyfan

2 жыл бұрын

Robert Serling, older brother of Rod and a prominent aviation writer in his own right, said the same thing about the causes of air disasters.

@BobJones-dq9mx

2 жыл бұрын

check above at my landing of a crippled YO 3

@marklittle8805

2 жыл бұрын

The perfect storm was not one issue but a chain of them.

@dongrant5827

2 жыл бұрын

The company I work for has a procedure for tracking back to find the failed links in the chain of events that lead to a mishap. Rarely is it ever due to a single cause, but usually to one thing out of place causing another, and another and so on. The goal is to find that “original “ event that started the raveling.

A great account of a legendary event. As an avid amateur historian of aviation literature and a glider pilot myself I offer one minor correction only because it illustrates the amazing, curious, and sometimes counterintuitive abilities of sport gliders and sailplanes. They in fact do not “tend to be as light as possible”. Many gliders and virtually all cross country racing gliders contain water tanks in the wings so that they can be made as heavy as possible, hundreds of pounds more than with just the pilot aboard. This is to increase their gliding speed as they are coasting down between the powerful upcurrents used to gain altitude (without an engine). Strangely, the decrease in climbing performance of a heavier glider is more than offset by its increased glide speed between climbs, at least when the upcurrents are strong. When rising atmospheric currents are weak the water can be dumped from the tanks in flight and is almost always dumped prior to landing. On a day with strong air currents a heavier glider will go faster and thus farther on a given day and encounter more rising air currents than an otherwise identical but lighter glider. In optimal conditions a modern racing glider can fly hundreds of kilometers at an average speed FASTER than a four seat 200 hp airplane!

I remember a movie called 'Freefall: Flight 143' depicting this incident...the RAT (Retractable Air Turbine) saved the day, along with the skill of the flight crew!

@HM2SGT

2 жыл бұрын

I remember that flick! I've never flown anything big enough to have a rat, This was where I learned about it.

@MojoFromMempho

2 жыл бұрын

Ram Air Turbine - RAT

@dangleecock6704

2 жыл бұрын

@@MojoFromMempho Comment Understood Now, Thanks = CUN,...

@MojoFromMempho

2 жыл бұрын

@@dangleecock6704 aren't you clever. I've been called worse.🤣🤣🤣

@dangleecock6704

2 жыл бұрын

@@MojoFromMempho 🤣🤣🤣 sorry mate was just having a giggle ❤. Honestly nice one though it's been years, nearly decades since I saw that movie!

Incredible story of coming through in a pinch after something that should have never happened.

@MakerInMotion

2 жыл бұрын

If you like that look up British Airways flight 5390.

I've always been amazed by the knife's edge this incident rests on. One tiny thing out of place and you either have an uneventful flight or an unforgettable disaster

@Milnoc

2 жыл бұрын

Mind you, it was a successful disaster. Everyone lived and no serious injuries!

@lasskinn474

2 жыл бұрын

Thats aviation allright

@ttww1590

2 жыл бұрын

In this case as in most there was not one tiny thing; you needed a broken part, a conversion to metric a dozen people didn't know about, training/deligation issues, new arcraft info issues, and someone playing around. Any one of the six things does not happen and the issue is avoided.

@vbscript2

2 жыл бұрын

@@Milnoc I think Matt's point was that a minor change to this incident could have resulted either in the flight being completely uneventful or could have resulted in it being a complete disaster with much loss of life (for example, if the First Officer had not been familiar with Gimli and they hadn't been able to make it to Winnipeg.)

There's another great piece to this story: several years later, Pierson and Quintel bumped into each other at an airport and discovered they were scheduled to work their next flight together. They got on board the plane and quickly realized that they were back on board the Gimli Glider, then asked for the fuel system to be checked one more time before departure.

@LarkspeedNL

Жыл бұрын

Cite your source please because this does not appear to be true.

@donaldblankenship8057

Жыл бұрын

That would have been like the Twilight Zone.

@ELL289

10 ай бұрын

@@LarkspeedNL Well aren’t you a stickler for facts! And, just how would go about finding an acceptable citation? Your criticism is absurd, and rather insulting. It’s improbable enough to have happened, and if not, what do you care?

I used to live on that base, when it WAS a base. A guy I worked with, belonged to that sports car club, and was there that day.

The old saw is any landing you walk away from is a good one. Considering everything, this landing was exceptional.

Pounds-per-liter is an AMAZINGLY cursed unit of measurement.

Air Transat 236...hold my beer, I''ll do the same thing over the ocean, another story of running out of fuel mid flight but this one caused by a fuel leak, That's why the Sully story is so amazing, unlike the Gimili Glider and Transat 236 he had no time. All 3 flights had the the great fortune of having great pilots, all 3 incidents had no loss of life

I never leave comments, but would like you to know that I absolutely enjoy this channel and your story telling. Thank you!!

I remember when this happened. The same year we lost an incredible singer Stan Rogers to an on-board fire. I remember how angry people were about the conversation of Canada to the metric system. One great benefit of the metric system and the pocket calculator is that now most people are completely incapable of calculating sums in their head.

@mikemunro2905

2 жыл бұрын

F ya!

@kellybreen5526

2 жыл бұрын

@@larmondoflairallen4705 I don't understand the comment.

You didn't quite cover the runway situation in its entirety. 2006 I was applying for my first job out of flight school (skydiver driver), I was up with the chief pilot in my first circuit with him, we took off north bound and when I came around to line up for the runway, (even knowing the story!), I naturally lined up with the most inviting one. Canadian cold war basses were parallel runways so interceptors could launch with their wingman already in formation, and the runway still in service is perfect for any aircraft outside the A380, however it is just a grey asphalt runway with only light traffic: the race track looks more inviting with all the fresh rubber laid down, it just looks like what a pilot expects to see! My chief pilot, looked at me and asked me where I was going, and there was a couple seconds until I had my "oh s#!t" moment: he made me promise to never do it again, and I never did! But without someone there to warn you, in an engine out situation, you can't see the barriers until your far too close to do anything about it!

Interesting that Capt. Pearson and Capt. Sullivan were both experienced glider pilots.

I'm a glider pilot, and this is perhaps my favorite glider story. I learned quite a bit more about the event, and the way you tell these stories is quite engaging. Thanks so much!

there's another similar incident, even more dramatic since it happened over the ocean, involving the pilot Robert Piché, best known for performing a deadstick landing of an Airbus A330 (C-GITS) in the Azores in 2001. He glided the Airbus A330 longer than any commercial aircraft in history, and landed at an airport on a remote island with limited navigation instruments. He was able to successfully land the plane (with only 8 blown tires) with only a few injuries among the crew and 306 passengers.[2][4] In a response to a reporter's question regarding heroism, Mr. Piché stated "I don't consider myself a hero, sir. I could have done without this."

2 Other points come to mind. Primary radar at Canadian ATC towers had been removed, without a transponder ATC was blind to dead responders. At Winnipeg they still had an old set not yet removed physically. They had pulled out the old set, hooked it up and it could provide distance and direction and an improvised paper ruler was used to measure on the screen. Also a friend of mine was a Captain on the 767 and the performance when lightly loaded was so great they had to be careful as not to alarm the passengers in a climb. I believe this aircraft, not sure but a 767 Air Canada, was climbing lightly loaded out of Ottawa? In the climb the fuel settled in the rear of the tanks causing the same sequence of alarms to display as the pumps struggled to pull fuel from the tanks. I can't find my reference for this but it was a footnote in a book called "Freefall" written about this incident.

Despite the mistakes, everyone was alive, which IMHO, makes the pilot a Hero.

Loss of all engines has happened - more frequently than you might suspect though the reasons might differ (volcanic ash, ice ingestion, oil leaks, fuel leaks) - Air Transat Flight 236 in 2001 out of fuel over the Atlantic - the Azores Glider with the longest passenger aircraft glide and also an experienced glider pilot as PIC.

I am very familiar with this incident but never knew all the details of why things went so wrong. Leave it to The History Guy to fill all the gaps!

I remember reading a book about this incident. Fascinating story. Thanks to the History Guy I learned today about the repair crew getting lost and running out of gas. LOL. Talk about an error laden flight and, thankfully, a remarkable flight crew.

My flight instructor would say "altitude is money in the bank". One of your best Lance! ✈ "Keep em flying!!"

@schroedingersdog7965

2 жыл бұрын

So true! I was told that that there are three things that are worthless to a pilot: sky above you, runway behind you, and empty space in the fuel tanks.

@Metazone101

2 жыл бұрын

My flight instructor would say, "Never run out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas at the same time."

@trooperdgb9722

2 жыл бұрын

@@schroedingersdog7965 I was told the only time an aircraft has too MUCH fuel...is when it's on fire... lol

@grimandproper

2 жыл бұрын

Airspeed is life, and altitude is life insurance.

@trooperdgb9722

2 жыл бұрын

How does the full saying go? "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one... Any landing, after which you can use the aircraft AGAIN, is a GREAT one."

Had a neighbor when I was a kid who'd done RAF training in Canada for service in WWII. On the trip back after training the ship was sunk by a U-Boat, and the frostbite to his toes disqualified him from flying. He ended up as an absurdly influential Bell Labs guy. We owe modems and laser mice at least in part to him. He took me up in his glider once. We spun around in thermals for what felt like hours,

@chillzedd8179

2 жыл бұрын

The story of how he was disqualified reminds me of my grandpa who served in the RCAF. He lost most of his left thumb when he was young which should have disqualified him as well but he managed to squeeze his way in by hiding his hand behind his back and wearing gloves all the time.

Reminds me of a story I read when I was a kid in the Civil Air Patrol and we were taking Flight Training. "The plane that crashed before takeoff" . It was about the importance of all your PreFlight checks, especially mass calculations and the effects of temperature and humidity on air density.

@paveltolz6601

2 жыл бұрын

I remember that story or, one titled the same, in Boy's Life's Book of Aviation Stories.

@HM2SGT

2 жыл бұрын

@@paveltolz6601 looking back on it now I'm willing to bet that's where the CO got it from. Boys Life- haven't thought of that in a few decades!👍

The pilot's knowledge of gliders and the old airbase are essential to the positive outcome. It exemplifies the need for people to develop a wide range of skills and experiences, improving their problem-solving capabilities.

This story brought tears to my eyes. Thank God for skilled professionals. This includes the Indonesian volcano mishap, The Louisiana hailstorm the Hudson ditching and the Siberian landing all without loss of life because of consummate skill and cool demeanor in an emergency that none of them ever expected to see.

Q: “How far do you think one engine will take us?” A: “All the way to the scene of the crash.”

I really enjoy your aviation related episodes, probably because I was an Airline Pilot for 25 years. I once had to land a Boeing 777 on one engine in Cold Bay, Alaska in 2004. That was easy compared to what the guys in this episode did.

The F-4E Phantoms I worked with had the glide ration of a brick...Every major accident I've ever seen was the result of a series of incidents, rarely just one thing....we called it "cascading".

@trooperdgb9722

2 жыл бұрын

The Mirage III's that the RAAF had many years ago were also said to have the glide ratio "of a block of concrete". In fact SOP in the event of engine failure was.....to eject.

A chopper pilot always told me everything is ok until the fan stops.

@paullangford8179

Жыл бұрын

Or the Jesus nut comes loose.

Captain Bob Pearson : *Deja Vu! I've just been in this place before higher on the street and I know it's my time to go!*

Thanks. Seems to be a Canadian thing. Air Transat 236 from Toronto to Lisbon lost all power over the Atlantic due to a fuel leak. It would have been a little scarier than over land and they did a dead stick into the Azores having glided for 75 miles. Once again, incidents are generally an accumulation of minor problems each of which in themselves are not catastrophic but one on top of the other push things over the edge. Having worked in the aviation industry checking dangerous goods, it was drilled into us that you make no assumptions, check everything, check it a different way, question everything and never just take someone's word for it. For a while I worked with Air Transat and have the greatest respect for them, the people I came in contact with were total professionals.

One commenter here mentioned a sword cutting both ways. I read once that the Treaty of Versailles that ended WW I was written forbidding the Germans from training pilots in powered aircraft. The writer posited that many older Luftwaffe pilots who later fought in WW II were experienced glider pilots first. He claimed that they had a skills advantage early on in the war. Whether true or not, glider pilots rock, lucky Capt. Pearson was one or there'd have been hundreds killed that day.

A slip actually uses the rudder to turn the airplane a but sideways to the slipstream. This means that the fuselage, which is normally facing the wind straight on is now going sideways to the wind, and this generates the needed additional drag. The reason this is not recommended in a big jet is because if the air flowing over the fuselage hits the engine it can disrupt the airflow and cause a flameout. As the engine was not operating this was not an issue.

There was an Air Transat flight that suffered a fuel leak and ran out of fuel. They had to glide over 70 miles and land in the Azores.

@bobmartin4942

2 жыл бұрын

The Flight Channel did a video about it.

I was an Airline Captain for 27 years ( B 747 - B 777 - B 767 - A 320 - DC 8 ) ...the Pressure to depart on time was CRAZY !!! It's SILLY to go flying with doubts about anything in Your Plane . I flew Fighters in the Air Force , when we " scrambled ", we were Fast but Logical , and there was No Doubt about anything.

We had to study this incident in school as part of our aviation human factors course, while we all knew the cause of the problem, we still had essentially recreate the investigation, and present evidence for our conclusion. One of my favourite projects from school. Thank you for the great video as always.

When I was young, my parents had a subscription to "Reader's Digest". I wasn't interested in most of it, but the "Drama in Real Life" articles were always excellent. And the joke pages were great! ;) I remember reading the story about this in one of those magazines. It was excellently written, and quite amazing to read about! The fire was the only real problem, and the captain refused to allow the plane to burn, so he grabbed a fire extinguisher and put it out. Amazing story!

Sure glad this A.C. flight went down in history instead of down in the woods! Pilot sure had a connection to his aircraft.

I'm always a huge fan of Canadian content on THG channel! I personally appreciate it very much and encourage you to keep it coming! :)

This event and the story of the Gimli Glider has long been known to road racers as the photo at 12:11 and full story were in AutoWeek shortly after it happened. It became road racing history. And while having a race occurring seems like near disaster, it was actually quite fortunate as the crews there had the equipment to put out the minor fires that occurred and would have been a serious problem if left to burn. There were also medical personnel at the track, although there were only minor injuries. This is not the only time a plane landed during a sports car race. In October 1980, a pilot landed his ultralight on the straight and Mid America Raceway immediately after the large production race ended, and mistakenly while the flag victory lap was being run.

It's such a remarkable event for all the things that had to go wrong for it to happen, and all the things that had to go right for it not to be a catastrophe.

I remember this, as my father told me. He only talked of how talented the person flying was. Considering the stress and emergency time fame, AND the aircraft that was flown.

My co-worker, a retired F-15 pilot and commercial airline pilot, told me about this incident several years ago.

Growing up I attended Royal Canadian Army Cadet marksmanship events at the airstrip where the 'glider' once landed at, super cool to see this story come up on the channel.

Holy Moses that's an amazing landing they made! Mistakes were made all around, but the flight crew sure came through when it counted most.

I flew on that plane back in 1986. At the time I had no idea why they said "welcome aboard the world famous Gimli Glider" when they started boarding.

Captain Pearson was an active glider pilot in his spare time so was able to properly configure the aircraft for landing (manually) using the air itself & the control surfaces - superb airmanship!

@nozecone

Жыл бұрын

The difference between having someone who is 'just doing their job' and someone who is doing what they're passionate about anyway. You get it in all occupations - I remember, for example, the Xerox repair guy who never tired of talking about minutiae of copying machines ... !

1983 iPad in the cockpit was a nice touch

Lol. I lived in the town where ther shot the “made for tv” movie, about this incident. I knew all bout the incident, except for the maintenance ground crew. Your take on this was impeccable as always.

Aloha History Guy! There was a similar incident to this with a 737 owned by TACA Airlines (flight #110). The pilot and FO landed the powerless bird on a levy in New Orleans, next to a NASA facility. The plane was repaired and took off from the road at the facility (the road was actually an old runway). Interestingly enough, everyone survived (thankfully) and thr pilot mananged to pull this off while only having the use of one eye! Would love to see you do a video on TACA 110!

@TheHistoryGuyChannel

2 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/fnqIqKWfk9HXdps.html - the pilot’s daughter actually contacted me because of that episode.

A friend of mine flew on that very aircraft body, some time after the Gimli incident occurred.

I remember reading about this in the papers, way back then. Could have ended in disaster, but it didn't, thanks to great flying skills. Not so great computing skills, but still impressive! :-) I think there was a similar incident in Russia a few years ago, where there was an airstrip that shouldn't really have been there, because it was closed down years ago. But the locals had kept it in shape, hoping for renewed air operations. And an airliner in trouble just stumbled upon it. The way I remember it, the flight crew was about to put the aircraft down on a river bank, when an air stewardess tapped the captain's shoulder and said, "Sir, sorry to bother you, but isn't that an airstrip out to the left?" Can't remember the specifics now, but perhaps a future video from THG?

Pearson belonged to SOSA(southern Ontario Soaring Association) a glider club in Rockton, a small village outside of Hamilton Ontario the very west end of lake ontario, which I belonged to at that time, gliding skills sure came in handy for this

Ahh Red Lake a little gem of Canadian aviation history . A town that is an Ode to the bush plane and gold. Thanks History guy.

How has this not been made into a movie? I was on the edge of my seat as you told this tale? If I saw this in the theaters I would be sobbing in relief the moment they came to a stop. In a world with so many amazing true stories it's perplexing that Hollywood can't produce anything but reboots

@skywaymanaz

2 жыл бұрын

There is a TV movie based on this starring William Devane. They fictionalized the airline and flight number while ommitting the Ottawa stop but the rest is pretty accurate. Falling From The Sky: Flight 174.

@DavidRexGlenn

2 жыл бұрын

@@skywaymanaz Thank you

@ttww1590

2 жыл бұрын

The TV show mayday has an episode on it which has the pilot and others in their own words. His description of the kid trying to peddle forward to get away from the aircraft instead of turning may be up your alley.

I was across Lake Winnipeg that day but have often been watching the drag races where she landed. From other pics it looks like the nose stopped sliding just about at the starting line of the 1/4 mile dragstrip (it runs south the plane is facing north) maybe 30 ft from the Christmas tree. Its port wingtip would have been just over the chainlink fence where lots of us watch the races from. Thank God no injuries.

It would seem Captain Pearson's skills as a glider pilot was the one stroke of luck which prevented disaster. The man was and is more than deserving of praise!

@ttww1590

2 жыл бұрын

He's also the one that knew the runway was there, it was not in service so air traffic didn't offer it as an alternate.

@lizj5740

2 жыл бұрын

He also ignored the fact that the minimum equipment list said don't fly if the fuel gauges aren't working.

As always, THG has once again regaled us with a tale of human crisis and how those people took the situation at hand and transformed what could have been a disaster, into a story of skill, experience, and happenstance combined to rewrite what should have been a statistical failure, into a triumph! I believe that there are no coincidences, but there are, no pun intended, happy accidents. A pilot with glider experience, knowing about the abandoned base, and bringing the stricken jet to a stop a mere “Hundred feet from barbecues and campers!”. Amazing!

This accident is precisely what Airline Pilot turned writer Ernest K. Gann so eloquently described in his book "Fate is the Hunter". A lot of small errors turned into a major problem.

A version of what to a friend in an A 6 flying back from North VietNam . Ran out of fuel and glided in to the first US airbase available . Cheered thst night at the BOQ by the airforce officers as the best navy glider pilots .

Nice video, and it seems to agree with all the reports I have read about the incident. However, I think a couple small bits of misinformation crept in: - It was stated that large commercial jets are not designed to glide, or words to that effect, and that they don't normally glide. But practically every fixed wing airplane glides as a normal part of landing. Yes, the engines still run, and can be powered up for greater thrust if the aircraft falls below the intended 'glide slope', but for the most part they are just idling while the aircraft trades altitude for speed, and that is all that is required to keep it flying during the descent. And every aircraft is 'designed to glide', at least satisfactorily, because engine failures happen and no aircraft designer or maker wants their products dropping out of the sky when engine failures inevitably occur. Do they glide as well as dedicated glider aircraft? No. Can they glide reasonably well? Yes, most definitely. - It was stated that planes of this type don't 'slip', or the pilots are not trained to do it, or whatever. Yet my friends who are commercial jet pilots say that 'slip' is a common technique when overtaking slower aircraft, especially when a string of different aircraft are all in the landing pattern at an airport. The air traffic controller advised that they are overtaking the aircraft ahead, and they might just deploy their spoilers or other devices on the wing in order to increase drag to slow down a bit, or they might 'slip' to increase drag and slow down that way. And I have seen large commercial jets slipping on approach to Chicago O'Hare airport.

I remember that flight. I had worked on airplanes in the Air Force and understood what happened when the WHOLE story game out about running out of gas. Thanks for the walk back!

This story is so amazing. The incredible incompetence and negligence on the part of the ground crew and airline on one end, and the equally incredible skill and quick thinking of the air crew on the other end, and a healthy dose of luck to tip the scales. It's invigorating to say the least. Ten thousand blessings to those men and their families.

Brilliant pilot, brilliant story. Thanx History Dude and Wife 🙏.

The episode.of Mayday that covered this incident mentions at the end that five different crews tried to replicate this landing in the simulator and none of them were successful.

I've been waiting for this one.

Thanks, from Manitoba 🦬

Having grown-up in the general aviation industry, I had to watch this episode again. Thanks !

Fortunately, you had a pilot who was so passionate about flying that, although it was his full-time job, he also flew gliders in his spare time. Unfortunately, it seems the ground crew guys weren't as passionate about measurement systems and chemistry .......