Air Crash Investigation: Season 5, Episode 6

5 - 6: Gimli Glider

On 23 July 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel at 41,000 feet (12,500m) altitude, about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton. The crew is able to glide the aircraft safely to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former airbase at Gimli, Manitoba. An unserviceable fuel gauge and an error in converting between metric and non-metric units caused the aircraft to be loaded with insufficient fuel prior to flight.