Manitoba community marking 40th anniversary of Gimli Glider

It’s been nearly 40 years since a Boeing 767 carrying more than 60 people onboard made a dramatic emergency landing in a small Manitoba community and became immortalized in the annals of the province's history as the Gimli Glider.

The Manitoba community is now getting ready to mark the milestone 40th anniversary of the historic moment.

On July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 left Montreal for Edmonton at an altitude of about 12,500 metres. Around the halfway point, the plane ran out of fuel.

The pilots, Capt. Bob Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal, were able to avoid the disaster by landing the aircraft on the runway of an old military base in Gimli, Man.

Peter Grant with the Gimli Glider Museum said the issue stemmed from the fact that Canada was switching from the imperial to metric system at the time, and the computer on the plane that measured the fuel was broken.

“The ground crew were not quite up to par on converting in their own minds litres into kilograms, so they used the same formula that they would for imperial,” Grant explained in an interview on Monday.

“They told Bob Pearson, the captain, that he had 20,000 kilograms of fuel, in reality he had 20,000 lbs of fuel.”

Grant added that somewhere over Red Lake, Ont., Pearson realized he was out of fuel and needed to get to the nearest airport, which he thought was in Winnipeg. However, they did not have enough altitude to get there, so Quintal suggested they land in Gimli, where he had trained in the air force.

“He said, ‘There’s a jet runway in Gimli,’ and Bob said, ‘Get me there.’ That’s how they ended up there,” Grant said.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of this event, a dinner and dance is being held on July 22 in Gimli. Pearson will be the guest speaker.

More information on the event and how to buy tickets can be found online. 

- With files from CTV’s Ainsley McPhail.