Gimli Glider

The Gimli Glider is the nickname of an Air Canada aircraft that was involved in a notable aviation incident in July 1983. On 23 July, Air Canada Flight 143, a Boeing 767-233 jet, ran out of fuel at an altitude of 41,000 feet (12,500 m) ASL, about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton via Ottawa. The crew was able to glide the aircraft safely to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former Royal Canadian Air Force base in Gimli, Manitoba.

The subsequent investigation revealed company failures and a chain of minor human errors that combined to defeat built-in safeguards. In addition, fuel loading was miscalculated due to a misunderstanding of the recently adopted metric system, which replaced the imperial system.