The 1983 "Gimli Glider" Incident.

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.

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?'.

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!

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.

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.

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. 🙂

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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!!

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.

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.

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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YO-3_Quiet_Star

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).

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

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.