Air Canada Flight 143 is a scheduled domestic flight flight between Montreal and Edmonton that ran out of fuel on July 23, 1983 at an altitude of 12,500 meters (41,000 ft), in the middle of the flight. The crew was able to safely fly the Boeing 767 plane to an emergency landing at the former Canadian Air Force base in Gimli, Manitoba, which has turned into a motor racing track. This unusual flight incident made the plane the nickname " Gimli Glider ".
Subsequent investigations revealed that a combination of corporate failure, human error and confusion over the actions of the unit had caused fuel-filled aircraft to be inadequate for planned flights.
Video Gimli Glider
Histori
On July 22, 1983, Air Canada Boeing 767 (registration C-GAUN, c/n 22520/47, fin 604) flew from Toronto to Edmonton where he underwent a routine checkup. The next day, the plane was flown to Montreal. After the crew changes, departed Montreal as Flight 143 for a return trip to Edmonton (with a stopover in Ottawa), with Captain Robert (Bob) Pearson, 48, and First Officer Maurice Quintal, 36, in control. Captain Pearson is a highly experienced pilot, with an accumulation of over 15,000 flight hours. First Officer Quintal is also very experienced, having recorded over 7,000 hours of total flight time.
Run out of fuel
On July 23, 1983, Flight 143 sailed at 12,500 meters (41,000 ft) above Red Lake, Ontario. Aircraft cockpit warning system sounded, indicating fuel pressure problem on the left side of the plane. Assuming the fuel pump has failed, the pilots turn it off, because gravity should feed the fuel to the two aircraft engines. The plane's fuel gauge does not work because of an electronic fault shown on the instrument panel and the plane log.
During the flight, computer management showed that there was still enough fuel for the flight but only because the initial fuel load had been incorrectly entered; fuel has been calculated in pounds instead of kilograms by crew and incorrect calculations have been approved by the crew. This error means that less than half the amount of fuel in question has been loaded. Because incorrect fuel weight data has been entered into the system, it gives the wrong reading. Moments later, a second fuel-pressure alarm was heard for the right machine, which prompted the pilot to divert to Winnipeg. Within seconds, the left engine failed and they began preparing for a single engine landing.
When they communicate their intentions for controllers in Winnipeg and try to restart the left engine, the cockpit warning system is heard again with the sound of "all out machines", "long bong" that no one in the cockpit remembered heard before and is not covered in training flight simulator. Flying with all machines is something that was never expected to happen and therefore is not covered in training. Seconds later, with the right side engine also stopping, 767 lost all power, and most of the instrument panel in the cockpit was empty.
The 767 was one of the first aircraft to incorporate an electronic flight instrument system, which operated on electricity generated by an aircraft jet engine. With both engines stopped, the system turns off, leaving only some battery-powered emergency flight instruments. While this provides enough information to land the plane, the vertical speed indicator - which will indicate the rate at which the plane was down and therefore how long it can slide powerlessly - none of them.
On a 767 aircraft, the engine also supplies electricity to hydraulic systems without which the aircraft can not be controlled. Such aircraft are required to accommodate such power failures. With 767, this is usually achieved through the automatic deployment of air-turbine ram, hydraulic pumps (and on some generator planes) driven by small turbines, driven by rotating propellers due to forward movement of the aircraft by means of windmills. Since Gimli's pilots are experienced in their landing approach, this decrease in speed means the reduced power available to control the aircraft.
Land on Gimli
In line with their diversion plan to Winnipeg, the pilot had descended through 35,000 feet (11,000 m) when the second engine was closed. They immediately searched for their emergency list for the section on flying the plane with the two engines out, only to find that no part existed. Captain Pearson is an experienced sled pilot, so he's familiar with flying techniques that are almost never used in commercial flights. To have maximum range and therefore the greatest choice of landing sites possible, it must fly 767 at optimal glide speed. Making his best guess for this speed to 767, he flew a plane with a speed of 220 knots (410 km/h, 250 mph). First Officer Maurice Quintal began counting if they could reach Winnipeg. He uses the height of one of the mechanical backup devices, while the distance traveled is supplied by air traffic controllers in Winnipeg, measuring the distance echoes of aircraft moving on their radar screens. In 10 nautical miles (19 km, 12 mi) the plane loses 5,000 feet (1,500 m), giving a glide ratio of around 12: 1 (special glider aircraft reaching a 50: 1 to 70: 1 ratio).
At this point, Quintal filed a landing at the former RCAF Station Gimli, a closed air force base where he had served as a Canadian Air Force pilot. Unbeknownst to Quintal or air traffic controllers, some facilities have been converted into a complex of race tracks, now known as Gimli Motorsports Park. These include road race courses, go-kart tracks, and dragstrip. A sports car racing sponsored by the Canadian Sports Automobile Club organized by the Winnipeg Sports Car Club was underway at the time of the incident and the area around the runway was full of cars and campers. Parts of the runway that have been turned off are used for the race.
Without force, the pilot uses a gravity drop, which causes gravity to lower the landing gear and lock it in place. The main gear is locked in position, but the nose wheel is not; this then turns out to be profitable. As the plane slows down during landing, the ram air turbine produces less power, making the aircraft more difficult to control.
As the airstrip gets closer, it becomes clear that the plane is coming too high and fast, increasing the danger of running off the runway before it can be stopped. The lack of hydraulic pressure prevents the flap/slat extension which, under normal landing conditions, reduces the aircraft kiosk speed and increases the wing lift coefficient to allow the aircraft to slow down for a safe landing. The pilot briefly considered a 360 degree turn to reduce speed and altitude, but decided that they did not have enough height to maneuver. Pearson decided to slip forward to increase drag and lose altitude. This maneuver is usually used with gliders and light aircraft to descend faster without increasing the speed forward.
The tricky thing is the fact that with both engines out, the plane barely makes a sound during its approach. The people on the ground thus have no warning of impromptu landings and little time to escape. As the plane slid down the runway, the pilot saw that two boys were riding bicycles within 1000 feet (300 m) from the point of projected impact. Captain Pearson would later comment that the boys were so close that he could see the look of fear on their faces when they realized that a commercial airplane crashed into them.
Two factors help prevent a catastrophe: the failure of the front landing gear to lock its position during gravity reduction, and the presence of a guardrail that has been installed along the center of the runway that is disabled to facilitate its use as a racetrack. As soon as the wheels land on the runway, Pearson brakes hard, blowing two plane tires. The unlocked nose wheel collapses and is forced back into the well, causing the nose to crash, bounce, and then erode along the ground. This extra friction helps slow down the plane and prevents it from moving toward the crowd around the runway. After the plane landed, the nose began to erode along the guardrail in the middle of the tarmac; Pearson applied the extra right brake, which caused the main landing gear to straddle the guardrail creating additional obstacles that further reduced speed. Air Canada Flight 143 reached the last stop on the ground 17 minutes after running out of fuel.
There were no serious injuries among 61 passengers or people on the ground. The small fire in the nasal area is extinguished by racers and course workers who are armed with fire extinguishers. When the plane's nose drops to the ground, its tail is raised and there are some minor injuries as passengers exit the plane through the rear slide, which is not long enough to accommodate the elevation.
Maps Gimli Glider
Investigation
The Canadian Aviation Safety Board (predecessor of the Canadian Transportation Safety Agency) reports that Air Canada's management is responsible for "deficiencies of companies and equipment". Their report praised flight and cabin crew for their "professionalism and skill". He noted that Air Canada "forgot to set clear and specifically the responsibility to calculate the fuel load in an abnormal situation." Further discovered that the airline had failed to allocate the task of checking the fuel burden (which had been the responsibility of the flight engineer on the older aircraft flown by three crew.) The security council also said that Air Canada needed to keep more reserve parts, including replacements for indicator of the quantity of the faulty fuel, in its maintenance inventory as well as providing better and more comprehensive training of the metric system to its pilot and fueling personnel. A final investigative report was published in April 1985.
Fuel quantity indicator system
The amount of fuel in the tank from Boeing 767 is calculated by the Fuel Quantity Indicator System (FQIS) and displayed in the cockpit. FQIS in the plane is a dual-processor channel, each calculating the fuel load and checking independently with the others. In case one fails the other can still operate on its own, but in these unusual circumstances the quantity indicated is required for cross-examination of the floatstick measurement prior to departure. In the event that both channels fail, there will be no fuel display in the cockpit, and the aircraft will be considered serviceable and not allowed to fly.
Due to inconsistencies found with FQIS in other 767, Boeing has issued a service bulletin for routine system checks. An engineer in Edmonton duly did so when the plane arrived from Toronto after a trouble-free flight the day before the incident. While performing this inspection, FQIS fails and the fuel cockpit gauge is empty. The engineer encountered the same problem at the beginning of the month when this same plane arrived from Toronto with a FQIS error. He then discovers that crippling the second channel by pulling the circuit breaker in the cockpit restores the fuel gauge to the working order even though only with a single FQIS channel operation. In the absence of spare parts he simply repeats this temporary improvement by pulling and marking the circuit breaker.
Records of all actions and findings made in maintenance records, including entries; "SERVICE CHK - FOUND FUEL QTY IND BLANK - FUEL QTY # 2 C/B WRITE & amp; TAGGED...". It reports that the fuel gauge is empty and the second FQIS channel is disabled, but it does not explain that the latter fix the first one.
On the day of the incident, the plane flew from Edmonton to Montreal. Before leaving, engineers told the pilot about the problem and confirmed that the tank should be verified with a float stick. In a misconception, the pilot believed that the plane had been flown in with mistakes from Toronto the previous afternoon. The flight went well with the fuel gauge operating properly on a single channel.
Upon arrival in Montreal, there was a change of crew for the flight back to Edmonton. The outgoing pilot told Captain Pearson and First Officer Quintal about the problem with FQIS and expressed the false belief that the aircraft had flown the previous day with this problem. In further misunderstanding, Captain Pearson believes that he was also told that FQIS has been completely dysfunctional since then.
While the plane is being prepared to return to Edmonton, a maintenance worker decides to investigate the problem with the wrong FQIS. To test the system, it reactivates the second channel, at which point the fuel gauge in the cockpit is empty. He was called to perform the floating measurements of the remaining fuel in the tank. Disturbed, it fails to disable the second channel, leaving a marked circuit breaker (which masks the fact that it is no longer interesting). The FQIS is now completely unserviceable and an empty fuel gauge.
Upon entering the cockpit, Captain Pearson saw what he expected to see: an empty fuel gauge and a marked circuit breaker. Pearson consults the minimum master equipment list (MMEL), which indicates that the plane was illegal to fly with an empty fuel gauge but due to a misunderstanding, Pearson believes it is safe to fly if the fuel amount is confirmed by measuring the stick.
The 767 was still a very new aircraft, having flown its maiden flight in September 1981. C-GAUN was Boeing 767 47 from its production line, and had been shipped to Air Canada less than four months earlier. In that time period there were 55 changes to MMEL, and several blank pages awaiting the development of the procedure.
Due to this unreliable, it has become a practice for flights to be authorized by maintenance personnel. To add to his own misconceptions about the condition of the aircraft since the previous day, reinforced by what he saw in the cockpit, Pearson now has a signed maintenance log that has become a habit to choose over MMEL.
Refill
At the time of the incident, Canada was converting to a metric system. As part of this process, the new 767 acquired by Air Canada is the first to be calibrated for metric units (liters and kilograms) rather than Imperial units (gallons and pounds). All other aircraft still operate with Imperial units. For a trip to Edmonton, the pilot calculates the fuel requirement of 22,300 kilograms (49,200 lb). A floatstick check shows that there are 7.682 liters (1,690 gal? 2,029 gal US) that are already in the tank. To calculate how much fuel should be added, the crew must convert the volume (liter) in the tank into a mass (kilogram), subtracting the number from 22,300 kg and converting the result back into volume. In the past, this task would have been completed by aviation engineers, but the 767 was the first of a generation of new aircraft flying only with pilots and co-pilots.
The jet fuel volume varies with temperature. In this case, the mass of one liter of fuel is 0.803 kg, so calculations true are:
- 7,682 liters ÃÆ'â € "0.8 = 6.169 kg of fuel already on board
- 22.300 kg - 6.169 kg = 16.131 kg additional fuel required, or
- 16,131 kg ÃÆ' · 0,8 = 20.088 liters additional fuel needed
The ground crew, however, used a conversion factor of 1.77, one liter of fuel in pounds, and this error was not observed by the crew. The conversion factor provided in the refueller document is one of the most used in the past, when the Air Canada fleet has been calibrated by the empire. The calculations they actually do are:
- 7,682 liters ÃÆ'â € "1,77 = 13,597 'kg'
- 22,300 kg - 13,597 'kg' = 8,703 kg
- 8,703 kg à  · 1,77 = 4,917 liters
Instead of taking the additional 20,088 liters of fuel they need, they actually take only 4,917 liters, giving them a total load of 10,100 kg of fuel, about half the amount needed to reach their destination. Knowing the problem with FQIS, Captain Pearson double-checked their calculations but was given the same wrong conversion factor and inevitably came up with the same false numbers.
The aviation management computer (FMC) measures fuel consumption, allowing the crew to track burning fuels while flying. Usually updated automatically by FQIS, but without this facility can be updated manually. Believe he has 22,300kg of fuel on board, this is the incoming captain figure.
Since FMC will reset during a stopover in Ottawa, the captain has a measured fuel tank again with a floatstick while there. In converting the quantity to kilograms, the same incorrect conversion factor is used, making him believe that he now has 20,400 kg of fuel; in reality, it has less than half that amount.
Aftermath
After an internal investigation of Air Canada, Captain Pearson was demoted for six months, and First Officer Quintal was suspended for two weeks for allowing the incident to occur. Three maintenance workers were also suspended. In 1985, the pilots were awarded the first ever AÃ © Â © ronautique Internationale Diploma for Outstanding Airmanship. Some attempts by another crew who were given the same situation in a simulator in Vancouver resulted in a collision. Quintal was promoted to captain in 1989, Pearson remained with Air Canada for ten years and then moved on to Asiana Airlines; he retired in 1995. First Officer Quintal died at the age of 68 on September 24, 2015, in Saint-Donat, Quebec.
The aircraft was repaired temporarily at Gimli and flew two days later to be fully repaired at a maintenance center in Winnipeg. After a successful appeal against their suspension, Pearson and Quintal were assigned as crew members on another Air Canada flight.
In May 2017, Air Canada still uses flight number 143, but the current route is Toronto-Calgary, using an Airbus A320 family plane. This is not the only incident involving this Air Canada flight number; on June 26, 2015, E190 at St. John's with the same flight number is targeted at an alleged bomb threat.
Retirement
After nearly 25 years of service, C-GAUN flew its final revenue flight on January 1, 2008. On January 24, 2008, Gimli Glider made his final voyage, AC7067, from Montreal Trudeau to Tucson International Airport before flying to retirement in the Mojave Desert at California.
The AC7067 flight was captained by Jean-Marc BÃ © Å © langer, former head of the Air Canada Air Pilot Association, while captains Robert Pearson and Maurice Quintal were on board to oversee flights from Montreal to Mojave California Airport. Also on board were three of the six flight attendants who were on Flight 143.
On July 23, 2008, the 25th anniversary of the incident, Pearson and Quintal pilots were celebrated in a parade at Gimli, and a mural dedicated to commemorate the landing.
In April 2013, Gimli Glider is offered for sale at auction, by a company called Collectable Cars, with an estimated price of CA $ 2.75-3 million . However, the offer only reached CA $ 425,000 and the amount was not sold.
According to a website dedicated to rescue planes, it was unloaded in early 2014, but not removed. Parts of the metal are made into luggage tags and offered for sale by a California company, Moto Art.
In June 2017, the permanent museum exhibit of the event opened in Gimli. The exhibits include cockpit flight simulators and memorabilia also sold.
In popular culture
Falling from the Sky television: Flight 174 is loosely based on this show.
Discovery Channel Canada/National Geographic TV series Mayday covered this incident in the 2003 episode titled Gimli Glider . This episode featured interviews with victims and recreational dramatic aviation.
News reports in early 2018 suggest that new feature films about Gimli Glider are in the early stages of preparation.
See also
- Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316
- List of flights that require to glide
- Mars Climate Orbiter , lost for navigation errors when subcontractors use Imperial units (pound-seconds) rather than metric units (newton-seconds) as determined by NASA.
References
Further reading
External links
- The Official Gimli Glider Project Website
- Shit Draws: The Gimli Glider
- CBC Digital Archive: 'Gimli Glider' landed without fuel
- C-GAUN photos after the landing
- C-GAUN images in storage (airliners.net)
- The retirement video flies-by
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments