The "Gimli Glider" Plane Non-Crash of 1983 (Episode 18)

This week we're headed to Canada to discuss the story of Air Canada Flight 143, which ran out of fuel 40,000 feet above rural Manitoba in July of 1983. What should have been a crash was narrowly averted by a pair of skilled pilots, a handful of algebra, and a landing site on a decommissioned airstrip in Gimli - which happened to be packed with Canadian car enthusiasts watching a racecar rally. Along the way, we'll talk about the Canadian air-traffic industry's imperial-metric changeover, how to up-cycle an old Air Force base, and - most importantly - how to turn a Boeing 767 into the world's heaviest and least agile glider.

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Sources for this episode include:

Gimliglider.org

"The Gimli Glider" by Wade H. Nelson for Soaring Magazine, 1997

"'Gimli glider' recalled at trial of pilot in crash", CBC News story, 2007

"This Day in Aviation: 23rd July, 1983" by B. Swopes, 2016