The+Gimli+Glider

Robert Pearson and his first officer Maurice Quintal never expected to be part of the shocking plane ride that took place in Canada in 1983. They never expected to get their fifteen minutes of fame in that way. But if they knew that event would occur would they have ever set foot on the plane? Probably not. This is the story of how these two men braved the unexpected, pitting themselves against the brute force of nature and yet another one of man’s follies. The first voyage of the Gimli Glider.  -1 -

 The Boeing 767 was the top of the line in plane manufacturing. Fewer controls to lower system failure rates. It also only required two people instead of the more usual amount of three to use it. Robert Pearson and his first officer, M. Quintal, were at the airport a few hours the flight as usual to check on the fuel gauges and supplies. They were scheduled to arrive in Edmonton, Alberta after a hop over to Ottawa to pick up more passengers. Everything should have gone perfect.

As soon as Captain Pearson and Co-captain Quintal took their first steps onto the jumbo jet, the ground crew shyly told the two that the ‘fuel quantity processor’ was a bit ‘troublesome’ and the fuel screen in the cockpit wouldn’t tell them how much fuel they had. They had to estimate how much fuel they needed. But the new planes were in the metric system. He knew he needed 22,300 kilos of jet fuel to get to Edmonton, and that there was already 7,682 litres in the tanks. So Pearson asked a crew member how many litres were in a kilogram. The man answered, ‘One point seven seven,’ Which sounded right to Pearson. And to be on the safe side they calculated it a few times and it worked. With confidence, the 69 people on board the aircraft set off, not knowing what was coming.

The fault in the math was, when you convert litres, you convert them into pounds, not kilograms. And since a pound is less then half of a kilogram, they had less than half the fuel it needed to make it. And worst of all, the estimate was so far off, the fuel warning light would never come on. It was as if they were inside a ticking time-bomb, waiting to explode at any moment.

--2--- About two hours into the flight, warning lights began to turn on and a signal sounded, telling that the fuel pumps on the left wing were out. Pearson assured himself that it was normal for that to happen right before another alarm went off. The right pumps were down. The odds of that happening were near impossible. Something must be wrong with the fuel, was the most likely thought that went through his head at the moment. Pearson’s heartbeat started to go into overdrive. He could get there, even if he only had one engine. Then more alarms went off. After a few minutes of non-stop panic, the real trouble began. A loud bong sounded through the cabin signaling that the the first engine, on the left wing of the plane, had run out.

Jumbo jets weren’t supposed to run out of fuel. They had never trained anyone to survive that situation, it could never happen. Yet it was. Pearson almost fainted when the second engine sputtered out, knowing that they only had one friend, the aerodynamics. Usually when the engine ran out in a normal plane, the meters and equipment kept running, but in this new cockpit, as soon as the last engine was gone, the screens went dark. His hydraulic system was down too. Pearson and his crew were cut off. With no fuel, almost nothing could save him now.

Quintal was in a jam. He was stuck on board a falling plane. So he did what any other smart pilot would do: he turned on the emergency power. The lights flickered back on again and Quintal’s hopes rose. They couldn’t possibly lose now they had their equipment back! Quintal realized what the back-up system ran on; jet fuel. He watched the power drain painfully. The Boeing 767 had only one line of defense left. It was time to engage the RAT.

The RAT stood for Ram Air Turbine, a pinwheel like design that used the airwaves around it to power the most primary controls. It was the last resort. No jet plane was meant to lose both engines, ever. The plane was going to turn into a ‘glider’.

--3-- Pearson fiddled with the radio. The radios worked because they ran on battery. Information poured over the radio, until one vital piece of information came over the radio. There was a abandoned airport not far from his location. He set his course to the only possible landing place, a small abandoned airport in Gimli, Manitoba.

Flight 143 was still plummeting towards the earth. Pearson shouted to Quintal to lower the landing gear. Quintal used the RAT to activate the landing gear. Only one problem: It wasn’t working. Rushing to the last landing resort, the mechanical one, Quintal pulled the lever. The landing gear opened! But then, as if by terrible coincidence, disaster struck again. The nose landing gear wasn’t coming out.

Pearson was coming in too fast. He whipped the yoke to the left, as if he was turning left, and at the same time pressed hard down on the right rubber pedal as if he was turning right. This greatly increased the drag in a wild flail to keep them from over shooting the runway. This almost crashed the plane itself since the left wing was a mere forty metres away from the runway, while they were moving at 180 knots. Pearson targeted the left runway. There was only one thing they didn’t tell him. There was the local Gimli Auto club on that runway. Having a picnic.

When the 767 hit the runway, two of the tires on the right burst. Pearson stood on the brake pedals, throwing on his weight in an effort to stop the plane. The landing gear broke, and the nose of the plane ground into the pavement. Pearson had difficulty steering the plane and keeping it centered on the runway. Then, Pearson noticed a metal railing to the side. Heading for it, he pushed the plane against it then to the railing on the other side. The plane came to a dead halt; only a few hundred feet away from the picnic.

In consequence of Captain Pearson and Co-captain Quintal, was a six-month demotion for Pearson, and a two week leave with pay for Quintal. Although it wasn’t considered heroism in the company’s eyes, the final report read: “The consequence would have been disastrous had it not been for the flying ability of Captain Pearson with valuable assistance from Officer Quintal.”

- In conclusion, the bravery those two men who piloted the ‘Gimli Glider’ showed is a true act of heroism, an act which shouldn’t go unnoticed. Almost no one could match the bravery and effort those men used to save the passengers, putting the passengers before themselves. These are true heroes.

References found in the ‘Uncle John’s Slight Irregular Bathroom Reader’ with support from other various sites such as www.wikipedia.com, and [|__wadenelson.com__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This was done in contribution to Mr. Janzen’s My Hero project.