Ran Out of Fuel at 41,000 Feet! | The Incredible Story of the Gimli Glider

The Gimli Glider: How a Fuel Calculation Error Turned a Boeing 767 Into a 132-Ton Glider On July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 was cruising smoothly at 41,000 feet between Montreal and Edmonton. Suddenly, warning alarms shattered the silence: both engines on the state-of-the-art Boeing 767 flamed out. The aircraft had run completely out of fuel mid-flight. What followed was one of the most remarkable feats of airmanship in aviation history. Left without engine thrust, hydraulic pressure, or primary flight displays, Captain Robert Pearson—an experienced glider pilot—and First Officer Maurice Quintal had to perform an impossible deadstick glide to an abandoned RCAF airfield in Gimli, Manitoba. Unbeknownst to them, the decommissioned runway had been converted into a drag-racing strip packed with families and spectators. In this 6-minute documentary breakdown, we cover: • The catastrophic unit-conversion mistake (Pounds vs. Kilograms) that caused the fuel starvation • The cockpit blackout and deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) • Captain Pearson's daring "forward slip" maneuver to drop altitude without gaining speed • The tense emergency landing on an active drag strip without main gear lock • The enduring legacy of Flight 143 on aviation fueling standards and crew resource management If you enjoy deep-dive aviation documentaries and real-life survival stories, make sure to Like, Comment, and Subscribe! Chapters / Timestamps: 0:00 - The Warning Alarm at 41,000 Feet 1:05 - The Metric Mix-Up: Pounds vs Kilograms 2:20 - Dual Engine Flameout & Total Silence 3:35 - Searching for a Runway: The Gimli Option 4:40 - The Glider Pilot’s Move: The Sideslip 5:25 - Chaos on the Drag Strip & Safe Touchdown Tags & Keywords: #GimliGlider #AirCanada143 #AviationHistory #Boeing767 #PlaneCrashInvestigation #DeadstickLanding #AviationDocumentary #EmergencyLanding