All language subtitles for Mayday.S05E06.Gimli.Glider.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

A brand new 767.

Fuel pressure.
Why would that be?

How come I have no instruments?

A catastrophic
failure at 26,000 feet.

Winnipeg,
Air Canada 143.

Air Canada 143, go ahead.

Just lost both engines.

Holy cow!

I'm talking to a dead man.

Uh, how far are we from Gimli?

You're approximately
12 miles from Gimli right now.

I guess I'll just slip it.

The crew
is out of options

and running out of time.

They're at the controls
of a 95-tonne jet...

that's quickly
falling from the sky.

Mayday! Mayday!

In placid skies
over central Canada,

Air Canada Flight 143
is just past the halfway mark

of its journey from
Montreal to Edmonton, Alberta.

Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.

This is your first officer...

The plane is carrying

61 passengers
and eight crew members.

Beautiful day.
Clear temperature
at 24 degrees Celsius.

It's July 23rd, 1983.

Hey, that's coming along, huh?

Rick Dion
is an Air Canada
maintenance engineer.

I was going
to Edmonton with my wife Pearl

and my young son Chris
who was four-years-old

and this was the beginning

of a two-week vacation for us

and we were all pretty excited

about going on
this new airplane.

Compliment of the captain.

Oh, hey, Rob. Thanks.

Whenever you want to
come up to the flight deck...

This was my first
flight on a modern 767

as the company
had just acquired them.

I'll be back in a minute, okay?

I was interested
in going to the cockpit

to see all this new technology

fit in with the work
that I did on aircraft.

The captain
on this flight is Bob Pearson.

He's 48-years-old

and he's spent more than
15,000 hours in the air.

His first officer
is Maurice Quintal

who has more than
7,000 hours of flying time.

Come on in.

- Pardon me, gentlemen.
- Rick.

I knew Bob Pearson
from the small flying club

that I attended in Saint-Lazare

and he was actually
one of the local pilots there
that used to do some gliding

and he also flew
the ultra-light Lazairs.

We had
departed heading northwest,

a nice clear sunny day in July.

We're a flight plan
of 39,000 feet.

There were a few airplanes
that flew that high in 1983

and we requested 41,000 feet

which got us further above
the jet stream out of the west.

The crew
may have accumulated
a lot of hours in the air

but very few in this plane.

It's Boeing's latest
and most advanced
wide body jet, the 767.

An army of microprocessors
in the belly of the plane
automates so many functions

that the flight engineer's job
has been eliminated.

This is one of four 767s
that Air Canada
has recently acquired.

The plane itself
has only 150 hours on it.

- Quite a difference here, huh?
- Oh, yeah.

Reset on and start here.

The cockpit is different

in that all the
old instrumentation

that we're accustomed to,
mostly that was all gone.

It was all CRT display
like, uh small TV screens.

It was a new high-tech airplane

which involved quite a change
for the crew

and the maintenance personnel,
people handling it.

This was a new aircraft
for both the captain and I.

At the time I had 75 hours
on that airplane,

so everything was new for me.

Pilots and maintenance crews

are both still getting
to know this airliner.

Well then we get
that same condition...

Captain Pearson
explains to Dion

how he handled a small
problem with the engines
on an earlier flight.

...comes back down
at a low stage
and then we just carry on.

You know, that brings up
an interesting...

Fuel pressure?
Why would that be?

Whoa.

A warning
alerts the crew
to critically low pressure

at one of the plane's
fuel pumps.

Something's wrong
with the fuel pump.

The 767
has three main fuel tanks,

two in the wings
which are always used

and one in the center,
only used on long
distance flights.

Electric fuel pumps draw fuel
from each tank

and feed it
to the plane's two engines.

The low pressure warning could
mean that one of the pumps
needs maintenance

but it could also be
a more serious issue,

a lack of fuel to be pumped.

No forward fuel pump.

I hope it's just
a bloody pump failing,
I can tell you that.

Another low fuel
pressure warning sounds,

this one from another fuel pump
on the plane's left side.

Pearson's flight management
computer tells him

he should have plenty of fuel
for the remainder of the trip.

The 767 also has separate
digital fuel gauges,

but on this flight,

those gauges
are out of service.

The warnings don't make sense.

It got a little
more interesting

when the second
fuel boost pump light came on

for that tank
which was the left tank.

This seemed quite abnormal

that two pumps would fail
in a brand new airplane.

We had some kind of a problem
that we didn't understand.

What would your assessment
of that be?

My own personal thoughts?

You might be low
on the left tank.

I used to be involved
with transferring fuel

and I know that when
you're trying to empty a tank,

it'll start
flashing periodically

and then the pump will re-prime
and then the light will go out.

In this case, it appeared
to do exactly the same thing.

Captain Pearson
knows that if the left tank
is running low,

the right tank
may be low as well.

Let's head for Winnipeg, now!

Pearson wants to land
as soon as possible

in case he is
running out of fuel.

The crew is still
more than 700 miles away

from their
original destination,

Edmonton, Alberta.

The nearest major airport
is Winnipeg, Manitoba,

a mere 120 miles away.

We were showing
lots of fuel on board
our flight management computer

and three normal fuel checks,
cross checked with our fuel
on our flight plan.

So we elected to divert
the flight to Winnipeg

where Air Canada
has a main maintenance base.

Winnipeg center,
Air Canada 143.

Air Canada 143, go ahead.

Ron Hewett
has 20 years' experience
as a radar controller.

Yes, sir, we have a problem.
We're going to...

Requesting direct Winnipeg.

Air Canada 143,
cleared.

Take position direct Winnipeg.

You are cleared
to maintain 6,000.
Descent your discretion.

Send to 6,000 his discretion
and that was it.

He didn't tell us
what the problem was

and uh, it's none
of my business.

Give him what he wants,
get everybody out of his way.

That's about what we do.

Okay. We're out of 4-1-0.

Pearson now begins
to descend from 41,000 feet.

Oh, man.
They're all going out, eh?

The low pressure
warnings are spreading

to more and more
of the fuel pumps.

Quintal instructs
the cabin crew to prepare
for an emergency landing.

- Hello?
- Cabin,

we think we have problems
with our fuel system.

We are diverting to Winnipeg.

All flight attendants
to front galley, please.

I hope
this is just false warnings.

Rick, can you think of
anything we haven't done?

No, I can't, Bob.

Okay, we've lost
the left engine.

Losing an engine
erases any doubt.

Flight 143 is, in fact,
running out of fuel.

Okay, checklist,
single engine landing.

Pearson is trained
to land a 767 with one engine.

No one has ever tried
landing with none.

He scrambles
to get his plane down

so that he doesn't become
the first.

With only one engine
powering Air Canada Flight 143

and with the possibility of
the other engine shutting down,

the crew prepares
the passengers for the worst.

Ladies and gentlemen,
this is your in-charge
flight attendant speaking.

Due to mechanical problems
we'll be preparing
for an emergency landing.

Please return to your seats
and fasten your seat belts.

Your crew is fully trained
to deal with this situation

and as you may have noticed,
some crew members

have already started
to prepare the aircraft.

I had no idea like
the rest of my crew members

that there was
a problem with fuel.

I had no idea why
we were going to Winnipeg.

Approach and landing,

- flaps will be 20.
- Right.

Ground flap override.

As they're doing
that drill,

the right hand fuel pump
low pressure light

was flashing as well,
much like it did on the left.

They were quite busy carrying
out first engine out,

not watching the pump lights

which was right at my eyebrow,

so, I kind of knew that
that one there was
gonna shut down too.

What was that?

Very shortly we will begin
giving you instructions.

How come I have no instruments?

Our beautiful colored engine

and flight instrument
displays simply went black.

Ladies and gentlemen,
please remain calm.

Please follow our instructions.

Refrain from smoking.

Put your chair back
in the upright position.

Secure your seatbelt tightly
against your hip.

It's exactly
what Pearson had feared.

He's lost both engines.

At 26,500 feet, still 75 miles
from the nearest major airport,

he is out of fuel.

Winnipeg,
Air Canada 143.

Air Canada 143, go ahead.

We just lost both engines.

When both engines uh shut off,

I think I said, "Holy...
I'm talking to a dead man."

We were trained
on the simulator

to handle
a single engine failure.

We had never practiced
and I don't believe most pilots

ever get the chance to practice
total engine failures.

One-four-three just lost
their engines.

It's highly
unlikely that anybody's
gonna survive this,

'cause I could see them
trying to make a turn
and spinning in.

An airplane's engines
not only provide thrust,

they also generate the power
needed to manipulate the plane.

It would be
completely uncontrollable,

but modern airliners
are like a Swiss Army knife

with one last blade
hidden away.

In the event
of a loss of power,

they automatically deploy
the RAT, or Ram Air Turbine.

It's spring loaded
and the propeller that drives
this small hydraulic pump

is about the size
of a propeller

you would see, like,
on a little Cessna 150

and this arm catapults down
into the slipstream.

This propeller starts to turn,
drives this hydraulic pump

and it gives you basic systems.

It was pretty quiet
flying without motors.

Pearson knows
that time is running out.

He needs directions
to the closest landing strip.

One-four-three,
this is a mayday

and we require a vector
on to the closest
available runway.

One-four-three,
we copy that, all okay?

But the loss
of the plane's engines

has had an unexpected
consequence at
air traffic control.

They're gone.

They were right here.

We've lost them.
He's dropped off the screen.

I need primary radar.

Uh, 143, we've lost
your transponder return

and are attempting to pick up
your target now.

We work on transponder,
it's called secondary radar.

We take the pilot's signal
to paint the aircraft.

Commercial jetliners are equipped
with a transponder,

a device that transmits
coded information

which air traffic controllers
use to determine
the plane's location.

But when Flight 143 lost
its second engine,

only a small number of items
got backup power.

The transponder
was not one of them,

so the plane disappeared
from Hewett's screen.

Flight 143 is somewhere
east of Winnipeg

but no one knows exactly where

or how far
it is from the airport.

In spite of its
enormous weight,

a 767 doesn't plunge
from the sky when
it loses its engines.

Its aerodynamic properties
keep it in the air but
slowly coasting to earth.

And I was trying to figure

how many miles
we were moving ahead

versus how many
thousands of feet
we were dropping.

But Quintal
doesn't have the instruments

which provide
the information he needs

to make that calculation.

Since he lost
the plane's signal,

Hewett can't give Quintal
that information either.

Controllers hurriedly work to
rig up a way to find the plane.

Just before landing
you will hear the command,
"Brace for landing."

Brace immediately and stay
braced until the plane
comes to a complete stop.

There are two ways to brace.

One, bend forward,
raise your arms and hands
against the seat back...

Bryce Bell
is a businessman
on his way home to Edmonton.

As soon
as they announced
that we were making

an unscheduled stop
in Winnipeg,

I immediately wished
I hadn't had

the two drinks that I'd had

'cause I thought
you're gonna have
a split second here

and this plane's
gonna explode in flame

and the decision you make
in that split second

will depend on
how alert you are.

Please put your
personal belongings
in the seat back pocket.

The response
of the passengers

when we were doing
the emergency briefing

was basically alert.

They were looking at us.

They were paying attention
to every word we were saying.

I couldn't have had
better passengers.

I think that's him.
Let's say that's him.

Because their modern equipment
can't see Air Canada 143,

the controllers switch
to old fashioned radar

which doesn't
need a transponder
to locate planes.

I gotta turn up my true radar,
the reflective radar,

which is not nearly as good

and we don't use it at all
if we can help it.

Okay, I got it.
Sixty-five from Winnipeg,
forty-five from Gimli.

Uh, 143, we have you
at 65 miles from Winnipeg

and approximately
45 miles from Gimli.

For the first time
since losing power,

the pilots know
their distance to Winnipeg.

We might make Winnipeg.

Quintal,
however, thinks that
Gimli is a safer bet.

Gimli, Manitoba
has a decommissioned
air force base.

It's about 20 miles
closer than Winnipeg.

As luck would have it,
Maurice Quintal
trained at Gimli

while in the armed forces.

He knows it well.

Forty-five miles to Gimli.
That is a long runway.

Uh, is there emergency
equipment at Gimli?

Negative emergency
equipment at all,

just one runway available,
I believe,

and uh, no control tower
and no information on it.

Pearson must
consider the possibility
of a crash landing.

If he has any chance
of making it to Winnipeg,

which has full
emergency support,
he knows he must try for it.

Okay then,
we would prefer Winnipeg.

Fine, 143, continue
your present heading.

We all reacted
very business-like

and say something specifically
to the situation

but never would
we ever look at each other.

I think we were all afraid
that we might break down.

Parents were hugging
their little kids

and people were busy
scribbling away

which I found out
afterwards were...

They were writing their notes
to loved ones and their wills

and all kinds of things
like that.

It was pretty nerve-wracking.

One-four-three,
a question if you
have the time.

Okay, go ahead.

Total number of persons
on board, please.

The actual number
of people on board is 69

but Quintal is overtaxed.

He gives a lower number
in error.

I have 33 people onboard,
including the crew.

Okay.

I have to ask
if souls onboard.

Uh, I know he's busy,

I don't want to ask him
questions but I have to.

This thing could go down
in the lake or the field,

um, and I remember thinking,

"Great. I know this airplane
carries about 300 people.

"At least it's not 300."

It was about regrets.
It was about things
I hadn't done in my life.

It was about ways I'd treated
the odd person here or there

that I wish I'd treated
more gently.

It was about how stupid
I was at some of the things

I used to make
big issues out of that
are so insignificant

when it really comes down
to what real reality is about.

It was pretty devastating.

And I remember telling
a mother with a baby
and I had...

...my daughter, Victoria,

and telling this woman

that it was gonna be
okay and I did it.

I did and I was so
proud of myself

that I could be
so straight with her

and tell her that
it was gonna be all right

and really look at her
in the eyes.

Okay, how far
from the field are we now?

You are 35... Correction,
make that 39 miles

from Winnipeg.

Roger.

Now that controllers
can see Flight 143 on radar,

they can provide Quintal
with the information he needs

to figure out if he can glide
as far as Winnipeg.

Roger.
What is your altitude now?

Eight-point-five.

Eight-point-five.

About 8,500 feet
above the ground,

Captain Pearson
can see his destination.

Winnipeg's airport
is less than 35 miles away.

We have visual.

But the news
from Quintal is not good.

Bob?

Maurice was calmly
keeping track of our distance

by input from Winnipeg
air traffic control

and our altitude

and he calculated our profile
and came to the conclusion

that we might not make
the runway in Winnipeg.

We can last maybe
another 20 miles.

We... we're not
gonna make Winnipeg.

Quintal has calculated that
at the rate they're falling,

they would hit the ground
a full 15 miles
short of the runway.

Uh, how far
are we from Gimli?

You're approximately
12 miles from Gimli right now.

Uh where is it?

Which way is he moving?

On your right.
Turn right to a heading

of three-four-five.

I would say
you have ten miles to fly.

Okay, fine.
We're gonna go there.

I'm gonna go check
on my family.

You guys don't need me
up here right now, huh?

- No, no. We're okay.
- Okay.

Don't worry about it.
Everything's okay.
They got it under control.

Make sure your seat belts
are tight, all right?

When I went finally
to sit down in my seat,

this is where I thought,
"Wow," you know, "This is it."

- Landing gear down.
- Roger.

First Officer Quintal
lowers the landing gear.

Because there's
no hydraulic power,

Quintal does what's known
as a "gravity drop",

letting the gear's own weight
drop and lock it into place.

The two main gear are heavy.

They fall immediately
and two green lights
confirm they have locked.

But the nose gear is lighter.
It doesn't lock.

We could hear the main gear
clearly falling and locking.

I was not aware
that the nose gear
was not down and locked.

It was sort of last minute
and if it's something
that you cannot control,

you don't talk of it.
You don't mention it.

You know, the main thing
was bring the aircraft
on the runway.

- Five miles to touch down.
- Roger.

We have the field in sight.

Five-miles
from Gimli,

Pearson and Quintal finally see
a runway they can land on.

But there is a problem.

We're too close, huh?
It's gonna be too steep,
too fast.

Yeah, I know.

Pearson is almost at the runway but
he's much too high above it.

If he comes down
at a normal descent rate,
he'll miss the landing strip.

But if he comes down steeply,
his plane will gather
a dangerous amount of speed.

He won't be able to stop
before the end of the runway.

In the normal approach
we have leading edge
and trailing edge flaps

which allow us to slow
the airplane down

and fly at a slower
speed safely.

We did not have those flaps

as they run off
the main hydraulic system.

So now what are we gonna do?

So we discuss,
we have two possibilities.

One of them was
to do a 360 degree turn

and lose the excess
of altitude.

On the other hand,
I thought it would take
about three minutes

and we were already

descending at a rate
of 2,500 feet a minute.

Only about
3,000 feet above the ground,

the plane doesn't have enough
altitude to make a full circle.

It would hit the ground
before making it back
to the landing strip.

Pearson chooses
a second option.

Well, I guess
I'll just slip it.

Pearson decides to try a maneuver
called a "sideslip",

practically unheard of
on commercial airliners

but sometimes
used by glider pilots.

And Bob Pearson
has a lot of experience
flying gliders.

I'm just gonna slip it down
to where we're almost down

at the runway
then I'll straighten out.

Okay.

Side-slipping involves

what's known as
"crossing the controls."

Here we go.

Pearson plans to force the aircraft
into a sideways freefall,

allowing it to drop quickly
without increasing
its forward airspeed.

Pearson has never
actually performed
a sideslip in a glider

but he's attempting one now,
in a Boeing 767.

The only way that
I could control our speed

and our descent profile
with the runway

was to induce drag
in the fuselage

by cross controlling the rudder
and the elevators on the tail

and the ailerons
on the wing tips

and cause the aircraft
into a crab configuration.

Then I can vary that
to increase or decrease
our speed

or increase or decrease
our descent rate.

Pearson controls the plane's descent

by using his rudders
and ailerons to change
the angle of the plane.

Crossing the controls
involves tipping the wings
in one direction

but turning the aircraft
in the opposite direction,

pushing it sideways
into the oncoming air.

As Flight 143 begins to drop
towards the earth,

Quintal is about to discover
something he did not expect.

The runway he trained at
15 years ago...

...is no longer a runway.

Captain Bob Pearson
is out of fuel, out of engines,
out of options.

If he can't line up
with the runway at Gimli,
he doesn't get a second chance.

Pearson turns the yoke left
and pushes the rudders
to the right.

The plane slips... to its left.

We're sitting in the center
which is the heart of
the airplane where it starts,

so, it's pretty solid there.

I thought there's a real
good chance here
that we'll be all right.

However, when he put
the airplane into a sideslip,

all that went out the window
'cause I figured,

"Well, if he hits a wing
or something and starts
to catapult and roll,

"that's not gonna
work anymore."

The 767
loses altitude quickly,

plowing sideways
through the air.

When I looked
to the left of the aircraft,

I was looking
directly at the ground

because the airplane
is angled quite...

I don't know, about maybe
60 degrees of banks.

The bank angle was quite high

and the nose of the aircraft
was quite high

and it was an awkward moment
and if it was awkward for me,

I can imagine for
the passengers,
it must really have felt odd.

I saw a sand trap
from this golf course

and I thought
we're gonna crash.

Pearson must
maintain a crucial balance.

He's got to slow
the plane enough
to be able to land safely,

but if he slows down too much,

the airliner could lose
its lift and plummet
to the ground.

When a pilot is normally
landing an airplane,

he's maneuvering
the flight controls

and operating
the thrust levers

pretty continuously
in most landings

and so I was doing
the same thing
without the thrust levers.

I swear I thought
of my daughter Victoria
being alone with my husband

and how he was gonna cope
with our daughter

and how she was gonna cope
without having a mom.

As they approach,
Pearson focuses on his target,
the threshold of the runway.

I got tunnel vision
like I've never had it before.

It was just our speed
and our relationship with
the threshold of the runway.

But now,
only hundreds of feet
from the ground,

Quintal sees that
their troubles
are far from over.

The Gimli landing strip
has been converted...

...into a drag racing strip.

Today is Saturday,
and it's not just a race day.

It's a family day
on the Gimli strip.

Racing is done for the day.

But the airfield
is filled with members
of the local sports car club

camping out with their families
for the weekend.

Two children have decided to
pedal the length of the runway.

They don't hear
the plane coming for them.

Without engines it's silent.

And one thing the 767
doesn't have... is a horn.

Brace. Brace for landing.

The nose hit with
quite a bang on the runway.

It sounded like a shotgun
going off at our feet.

The front
landing gear
gives out immediately.

Pearson brakes hard.
Two tires blow out.

The bottom of the right engine
scrapes the runway.

I was a robot.
There was just
no emotion at all.

Finally, Pearson
sees what's in their path.

And I looked up and I could see
two boys on bicycles

and they must have been
probably about 1,000 feet
down the runway

from our position
when I saw them.

And then at one point
I could see he raised his head
and he's surprised.

Here's this big aircraft.

And I can
still remember the look
of terror on their faces.

So, they were close enough
for me to see that.

With no nose gear
to steer with,

Pearson's only hope of driving
the plane left or right

is by varying the brake
pressure on the two
main landing gear.

That's when my heart started

to pitter-patter a little bit.

The kids panic
and try to outrun a plane

that's traveling
about 200 miles an hour.

I knew I couldn't take
the airplane into these boys

and I was gonna
take it off into the grass
on the right side.

There were campers along
the west side of the runway

that I didn't notice
until after we'd touched down

and the nose was on the ground

and I can still remember
at the left side people
standing by their barbecues.

Dino Calvert is
at the track with his friends
for a weekend of racing.

One of
the gentlemen in the pits

suddenly jumped in his car,
and he took off

and I thought, "Well,
you don't drive like that

"in the pits usually,"

and I looked up and all
I could see was smoke rising.

Pearson does all he can
to stop the plane in time.

Holy crow!

The plane plows
into a guardrail installed
down the middle of the runway.

Smoke, Bob.

Seventeen minutes
after running out of fuel,

Air Canada Flight 143
comes to a final stop
on the ground.

Yeah? You okay?

Somebody yelled "yahoo" or something
and people started applauding

and we were so grateful,
we made it.

When you believe
that you're gonna crash,

you do believe
that the airplane
is gonna break apart,

you're gonna have fire.

Evacuate! Evacuate!

Evacuate!

All right, let's go.
We gotta get off the plane.

Thick smoke
is quickly filling the cabin.

The crew doesn't take
any chances.

They want everyone
off the plane
as quickly as possible.

There was a sense of joy
and then a panic kind of...

It seemed to go in waves
and then a panic saying,
"We gotta get out of here,

"we gotta get out of here."

Less than
two months earlier,

an Air Canada DC-9
made a successful
emergency landing in Cincinnati

only to burst into flames
on the tarmac

before all the passengers
could get off.

Twenty-three people died.

The crew and passengers
of this flight want to avoid
a similar fate.

It took maybe
just a few seconds

to come up to a full halt
on the runway

but the cockpit
was full of smoke.

Passenger evacuation checklist.

Passenger checklist.
Fuel shut off.

Off.

Cabin pressurized.

- Electrics off.
- Electrics off.

- Checklist complete.
- Time to get out of here.

Come on, guys,
get some fire extinguishers.

We grabbed
the fire extinguishers
on our way

and you never go to a fire
at a racetrack without having
a fire extinguisher with you

and we ran up towards it.

The doors open up and you see
the chutes come out sort of
like a spider growing legs.

The plane ended up
eventually standing almost

what would appear to me
to be almost on its nose.

When I opened my door
and I saw that the chute
was so steep,

I thought, "Oh, my goodness.
How do I get these
passengers to go down?"

Due to
the nose-down
angle of the plane,

the two rear slides
don't reach the ground.

Ten people are slightly injured
during the evacuation,

most of them coming down
the steep rear slides.

I heard on the west radar
frequency, he said...

One of the 767's says,
"He's down okay.
He's in one piece."

And that's when
our cheer went up.

I said, "Okay,"

because all of these people
were gonna sleep

in their own bed that night.

There's still
a lot of smoke coming
from the plane's nose.

It turned out
it was about six
inches of insulation

between the inner
and outer skin

from friction
that was starting to burn.

The flight attendants
have good news.

All 61 passengers
have made it off the plane.

There's not so much
as a single serious injury.

- We'll give you a hand.
- Yeah, the extinguisher.

Bob Pearson has done
what no one has done before.

He safely landed a 767
with no engines,

gliding to safety
from more than 26,000 feet.

Air Canada
Flight 143 glided...

The event
makes international
headlines immediately.

People are already asking

how one of the most
sophisticated passenger
planes in the world

could have run out of fuel.

...by sliding down
emergency chutes.

By the next day,
the investigation
has already begun.

Bill Taylor and Diane
Rocheleau of Canada's
Aviation Safety Bureau

are among
the first investigators
at the scene.

I was a junior mechanical
engineer at the time.

I had been working for
Transport Canada for a year.

Going to the field
for the first time

was very exciting.

It was new,
it was a major aircraft.

Once we got
into the fuel quantity
indicating system,

I actually left Diane

to deal with the specifics
of the computer system.

First,
Bill Taylor needs to confirm

what everyone
has been telling him,

that the plane is out of fuel.

Investigators drain the tanks,
collecting less than
17 gallons of fuel.

The 767 can hold
almost 24,000 gallons.

It's like having
five tablespoons of fuel
in a mid-sized car.

Taylor next needs
to examine the possibility

that the fuel leaked out
during the flight.

The other checks
involved looking for

any evidence
of fuel having been lost.

We even went
so far as to go into

what they call the dry bay
of the aircraft.

I'm a bit claustrophobic,
so I really wasn't too enthused
about going up in there

but I crawled up
and had a look around
with a flashlight

and confirmed that
there was no evidence of fuel
having been lost in there.

That leaves Taylor
with only one conclusion.

Flight 143 took off
without enough fuel.

Now investigators
need to find out why.

I can't believe
it's in one piece.

Diane Rocheleau
begins looking for the answer
to that question

in the plane's sophisticated
electronics bay located
beneath the cabin.

The 767
was a newer type aircraft

and it did have
a lot of computerized system

and I guess back in 1982,
these were coming on to
the market at a fast rate

and they were newer types
of electronic system.

Rocheleau confirms
that a computerized unit,

the digital
fuel gauge processor,

had been malfunctioning
on this plane.

There was no spare in Montreal,
so it couldn't be replaced.

Rocheleau takes
the component for testing.

It was decided
early on that the unit,
the fuel processing unit

would be taken
to the manufacturer Honeywell
in Indianapolis for testing

and I was tasked
with taking the unit,

so we went through
all the testing procedure

and then at one point
we did discover

that there was a malfunction
with the unit.

During the testing,
we went more and more in depth

and we found out that
one of the circuit,
it's called an inductor coil,

it was a very, very small part
and it was encapsulated
at manufacture.

And encapsulated means
it's covered with plastic.

You cannot visually see it
because it's now
covered with plastic

and you can't see
the inductor coil itself

but once we took over
the plastic case

we could see
that the solder joint
had not been made properly

which caused a malfunction
in the system.

The faulty
processor explains

why Pearson didn't have
fuel gauges for the flight

but doesn't explain
why he didn't have enough fuel.

The inoperative gauges
were clearly flagged.

Ground crews wouldn't
have relied on them

when they were
fueling the plane.

Investigators confirm
that the ground crew

did perform a manual check
of the fuel before takeoff.

We just need to know
what you did next.

Yeah? We did a manual check
of both tanks

and then we pump enough fuel
for the trip to Edmonton.

Flight 143
should have taken off
with enough fuel for the trip.

Okay, thanks.

That helps.

Investigators now have to figure out

how one of the world's
most advanced jetliners

took off with half the fuel
necessary for its flight.

The investigators know
that with its fuel gauges
out of service,

Flight 143's fuel tanks
were checked manually.

Then the fuel
for the trip to Edmonton
was added to the tanks.

But before the plane
could be given more fuel,

a crucial calculation
had to be carried out.

Pilots need to know
the weight of the fuel
on their plane,

but fuel trucks
pump jet fuel by volume.

In order for pilots and fuelers
to communicate,

a simple routine translation
between volume and weight
has to be made.

Thank you.

Investigators check
and double-check that math.

The fueling records
from the day of the accident

provide the answers
they have been looking for.

This is a typical
fueling record.

But when
investigators examine

the calculations
for Flight 143...

And this is from Flight 143.

...they look anything
but straightforward.

The document clearly shows
the amount of fuel
in the right and left tanks.

But investigators are troubled
by two particular numbers.

One converts
volume to kilograms,

the other converts it
to pounds.

He shouldn't
have been using both.

So did you convert to pounds
or to kilograms?

To pound.

No, to... to kilo.

Can I see that again?

Further interviews
with the technicians and crew

reveal that the events
on Flight 143...

I don't know what I did.

...were caused by human error
involving poor calculations

and ultimately
inadequate training.

Okay, fellows,
we've finished the fueling...

The technicians
refueling Flight 143

got muddled
in their calculations

while converting the volume
coming out of the fuel truck

to the weight of the fuel
in the plane's tanks.

No one who saw
the calculations that day
noticed the basic error.

In 1983, Canadian
ground crews were used

to converting
the amount of fuel

leaving their trucks
into pounds.

The 767 was the first plane
in Air Canada's fleet
to have metric fuel gauges.

It's fuel should've been
measured not in pounds
but in kilograms,

which requires
a different calculation.

Flight 143 needed
22,300 kilograms of fuel
for the trip,

but pilots and technicians
let it leave with
22,300 pounds instead.

Because a pound
is about half-a-kilogram,

the plane only got half
the fuel it required,

which explains why Pearson's
flight computer told him
he had plenty of fuel.

He entered the wrong amount
of fuel to start with.

In the past,
the flight engineer
calculated the fuel loads.

This accident raised
an important question,

"Whose job was it
with the two-man crew?"

Better training
is definitely an issue

in an incident such as that.

If everyone is trained

and the lines are drawn as
to who's responsible for what,

then there's no
ambiguity on it.

People know
what they're responsible for.

In this case,
it was sort of open-ended.

We weren't aware
who was responsible

for the final say
on this fuel stuff.

A subsequent inquiry

found that none of those
involved that day

was trained
in metric calculations.

Not the ground technicians,
not the pilots.

I had not received any...

Neither of us had received
any training at all

on doing these calculations.

The computer
that had replaced the 767's
flight engineer was broken,

and no one knew
who should be doing its job.

Air Canada 143
was essentially down a man.

And the goal is to prevent

a recurrence
of this particular event

and also we find out
other system

that might have been
either at fault

or maybe they could cause
a problem in the future

and you do try
to prevent recurrence.

All right!

It took a string of
mechanical and human failures

for Flight 143
to run out of fuel.

But another failure that day
may have saved some lives.

If the plane's nose gear
had not collapsed,

it would have taken Pearson
much longer to stop.

The plane could have slid
into the people who were
at the strip that day,

which would have had
catastrophic results.

There could have
been more injuries
or even loss of life.

Pearson and Quintal
were partly blamed for
their roles in the incident.

A government inquiry
recommended that
Air Canada reevaluate

the training of flight crews
and ground technicians
in metric fuel conversions.

It also recommended
that the airline
keep more spare parts,

such as fuel gauge processors.

Rick Dion retired in 2003

after a long career
as Air Canada's coordinator
of maintenance control.

First Officer Maurice
Quintal was promoted
to captain in 1989.

Captain Bob Pearson went on
to fly ten more years
for Air Canada,

his experience at Gimli
shaping the rest of his career
as a commercial pilot.

This experience affected me
mostly by giving me...

Making me
more relaxed as a pilot,

giving me the feeling that

as much as I've trained
for all those years

that there's always
that question about
how you're gonna perform

when the chips are down
and I now have the feeling
that no matter what,

as long as an aircraft
stays together,

I would get it safely back
on the ground

and so it's been
a relaxing experience.

It's the knowledge
that you know under
stress you can perform.

Before that you don't know.

You just hope you will
and you train,

you train for it
but you never know.

With the things that
they had to deal with,
it was magnificent.

I think it got proven
in the simulator in Vancouver.

They tried out these
same circumstances

with several crews
and they all crashed.

Probably the most important
thing that came out of it
was the realization

that when something new
is introduced,

special attention and training
needs to be accomplished

for people to be aware
of what they're dealing with.

When we had landed
and the airplane
was all in one piece,

I thought, "Wow, I got
another chance to fly again."

Because of a tragedy like that,

once you take
your deck of cards

and fire it in the air,
you're truly free

and I guess
from that point of view,
I could...

I find it very difficult to say
but Gimli was...

Maybe almost the best thing
that ever happened to me,

next to meeting
my wonderful wife
and marrying her.

Two days
after the landing at Gimli,

Air Canada's 767
was back in the air on its way
to Winnipeg for repairs.

A quarter century later,
that same plane
is still in service

and it still carries
the nickname that
Bob Pearson earned it...

The Gimli Glider.