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That Time a Commercial Aircraft Ran Out of Fuel Mid-Flight...
todayifoundout ^ | May 27, 2014 | Melissa

Posted on 05/29/2014 8:32:05 AM PDT by virgil283

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To: virgil283
There was another plane that ran out of fuel in Africa after some moron hijacked it and didn't believe the pilots when they told him it didn't have enough fuel to make it to Libya.

It crash landed in the ocean off of a resort, and many people in the resort rushed out in boats to pull passengers out of the water.

The majority lived, if I recall correctly.

41 posted on 05/29/2014 12:00:04 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: Vigilanteman

That was the first leg of the trip. The plane ran out of fuel on the second leg, from Ottawa to Edmonton, which is some 2,800 km (1,740 miles).


42 posted on 05/29/2014 12:36:38 PM PDT by -YYZ- (Strong like bull, smart like tractor.)
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To: AU72
Gliding in a 767 with no power to a former runway? That's comparable to Scully's Hudson river landing.

Actually what Scully did relative to flying was not that difficult. The landing of the 767 in Gimle Canada was a more difficult flying feat. Scully had miles of water to land on. The Gimle Glider (a 767 with out power) had just a few thousand feet to land on.

Scully's brilliance was his decision making. If he tried to go back to La Guardia or make it to Tetterboro he had one chance to land and if he did not make it to the runway an airliner full of fuel and passengers would come down in a heavily populated area. He had little time to make the decision. He made the right decision as did the pilot of the Gimle Glider.

I salute both exceptional pilots.

43 posted on 05/29/2014 12:41:38 PM PDT by cpdiii (Deckhand, Roughneck, Mud Man, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR!)
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To: rktman
Take offs are optional. Landings are not.

Kinda like the Coast Guard's

"You have to go out, You don't have to come back"

44 posted on 05/29/2014 12:49:25 PM PDT by AU72
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To: AU72

Or, submarines going down but not coming up. Yewww! What an awful way to go. Hell, I sometimes thought we were a sub in the North Atlantic in 50’ seas on a destroyer escort.


45 posted on 05/29/2014 12:53:06 PM PDT by rktman (Ethnicity: Nascarian. Race: Daytonafivehundrian)
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To: rktman
I sometimes thought we were a sub in the North Atlantic in 50’ seas on a destroyer escort.

Yeah I remember those seas on one fisheries patrol in January. On the mid-watch the Captain was being kept awake by a loose monkey's fist banging on the hull of his stateroom. As BMOW it was my task to secure it in a wet pitching deck.

46 posted on 05/29/2014 12:58:15 PM PDT by AU72
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To: armydawg505
767s were flying in 1983?

Yes, but the A300 was the first wide body twin engine, a market that now dominates large commercial airliners.

47 posted on 05/29/2014 1:04:23 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: -YYZ-
Makes more sense now. But I thought checking the fuel level was on the routine list of things to go through before take off.

At least it was when my uncles and father flew in World War II.

48 posted on 05/29/2014 1:07:31 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: virgil283
The problem was that the original ground crew, and the flight crew (twice!), had forgotten that the new airliner used the metric system (as Canada was in the process of switching to the metric system, so the new planes purchased by Air Canada were being calibrated in metric units); as a result, they had all erroneously used the figure 1.77 lbs/liter for their specific gravity factor in the calculations, but what they should have used was 0.8 kg/liter.

When are going to switch to binary? The benefit of the metric system is that it allows bureaucrats to count on their fingers.

49 posted on 05/29/2014 1:07:36 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: virgil283

I remember when this happened. It was shocking that no one was injured or had a heart attack! I know that there are probably MANY that saw God’s hand in that landing that day!


50 posted on 05/29/2014 1:26:42 PM PDT by Shery (in APO Land)
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netflix is streaming a series about air disasters that has this as one of the episodes. Don’t remember what it was called though.


51 posted on 05/29/2014 1:44:02 PM PDT by KneelBeforeZod (I have five dollars for each of you)
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To: virgil283
The final irony: the repair crew driving to Gimli
to get the plane ready to fly out again
RAN OUT OF FUEL!!
52 posted on 05/29/2014 7:41:14 PM PDT by skeptoid (the thought plickens)
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To: skeptoid
"the repair crew driving to Gimlito get the plane ready to fly out again RAN OUT OF FUEL".....

No !....you are Kidding?

53 posted on 05/29/2014 8:04:57 PM PDT by virgil283 (That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.)
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To: virgil283

How many new pairs of underwear did they pass out after the plane was emptied?


54 posted on 05/30/2014 9:28:06 AM PDT by The South Texan (The Drive By Media is America's worst enemy and American people don't know it.)
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To: virgil283
Likely true.

Posted November 2007 on Damn Interesting site

A crew of engineers from Winnipeg airport clambered into a van and headed for Gimli to assess the damage. During transit, however, their vehicle unexpectedly ran out of fuel, nearly ripping a hole in the delicate space-irony continuum.

55 posted on 05/30/2014 10:41:39 AM PDT by skeptoid (the thought plickens)
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To: virgil283

This one is worth a BUMP just because these pilots basically redefined “awesome” for all eternity. Please alert me when these guys near the Pearly Gates... I’ll mix the martinis and throw the rose-petals.


56 posted on 05/31/2014 3:44:49 PM PDT by golux
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To: cpdiii

45 minute video about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRAQAzey4w

This was just after Canada had switch from Imperial measurements to metric. They had run out of fuel because the person responsible for fueling the plane made an error in calculations of equivalency between the two measurement systems.

The name of the town is Gimli with an “i”, BTW, not Gimle with an “e”. They landed on what used to be a WW11 RCA runway.


57 posted on 04/02/2015 10:54:12 PM PDT by oldweesie
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