Gimli Glider Movie Considered
One of Canada’s best flying stories has caught the attention of Hollywood. Inkubate Entertainment is in the early stages of putting the story of the Gimli Glider on the silver screen. “The latest we’ve heard is that they’ve hired two scriptwriters,” Bob Pearson, captain of fuel-starved Air Canada Boeing 767 told CTV “We never know, but we are hopeful, and it’s, of course, something very interesting to be involved in.”
Pearson, who is now 82, was in the left seat of the brand new widebody on July 23, 1983, when it inexplicably ran out of fuel at 38,000 feet over Northern Ontario. “There was a loud bong and the cockpit (and) the flight deck simply went black,” said Pearson. “We (were) a great big glider.”
He and First Officer Maurice Quintal, who has since died, initially headed for Winnipeg for an emergency landing but calculated they wouldn’t make it. The former military airfield at Gimli was closer and they turned toward it. The abandoned runway was filled with families attending go-kart races when the huge aircraft swoops silently into view, side slipping to lose altitude and speed. Although the nosegear wasn’t fully deployed and collapsed on touchdown, there were no injuries on board or on the ground. The aircraft was repaired and went on to fly for the airline for more than 30 years. A mix-up between metric and imperial measures led to insufficient fuel being loaded for the flight from Montreal to Edmonton.
Challengers Out, Global 6500s In
Canada’s federal government announced on Dec. 12 that it will be purchasing a fleet of six Bombardier Global 6500s to replace the aging fleet of 1980s-era Canadair Challengers, with options for an additional four depending […]
New RCAF Training Helicopter On Its Way
Personnel from several organizations were on hand at the Airbus facility in Donauwörth, Germany to inspect the first RCAF CT-153 Juno helicopter before its delivery to Airbus Helicopters’ facility in Fort Erie, Ontario where completion […]
Contaminated Fuel Led to Grumman Goose Crash – TSB
The crash of a 1942 Grumman Goose operated by Wilderness Seaplanes Ltd. shortly after takeoff from Bella Bella Airport (CBBC), British Columbia in December 2023 was due to contaminated fuel. Both engines of the piston […]
New Readback Instructions to Become Mandatory
Beginning in November of next year, pilots using controlled airports in Canada will be required to read back certain additional instructions and clearances given them by Air Traffic Service (ATS) providers, be they tower controllers […]
RCAF Kingfishers Finally in Service
After years of delays, replacements for the RCAF’s fleet of Search & Rescue (SAR) de Havilland Canada CC-115 Buffalos are finally operational on Canada’s West Coast. The Airbus CC-295 Kingfishers first began arriving at CFB […]
Nolinor Orders Next-Gen Cargo Aircraft
Quebec-based Nolinor Aviation has placed an order with California-based Natilus for multiple Kona aircraft, a blended-wing-body (BWB) cargo aircraft designed for operation on rough, unpaved runways. With a 3.8-tonne payload, the pusher-configured twin turboprop is […]
Flying the Maple Leaf
While many people find novel ways to display pride in their country, pilot Mike Jones took to the sky over Southern Ontario in his Grob G 115 to trace a near-perfect outline of a Canadian […]
Some of Last Week’s Highlights in Brief
Norwegian Air Traffic Service provider Avinor is expanding its remotely operated control tower program. Madrid, Spain-based Indra has contracted Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS to deliver a further seven airport systems that will be operated […]
Top Aces Training RCAF Pilots
Top Aces, a privately owned Montreal-based advanced airborne training contractor, is providing training to RCAF pilots using their fleet of McDonnell Douglas A-4N Skyhawk trainers. The aircraft type is being used for fighter lead-in training […]
Some of the Last Two Weeks’ Highlights in Brief
The Transportation Safety Board has dispatched an investigation team to Halifax in response to the Dec. 28 incident of a collapsed left-side landing gear of a PAL Dash 8-Q400 passenger turboprop at that city’s Stanfield […]
Some of Last Week’s Highlights in Brief
Vancouver Island’s Sealand Flight, a flight training unit based in Campbell River, announced the first solo flight by a student pilot in a battery-electric airplane in Canada. The December 20th announcement named 18-year-old Catherine Check […]
2023 Chinook Crash – Accident Investigation Report Released
The RCAF’s Directorate of Flight Safety cited “unrecognized downward acceleration and environmental conditions” as factors in the nighttime crash of an RCAF Boeing CH-147F Chinook helicopter in the Ottawa River that resulted in the deaths […]
Some of this Week’s Other Highlights in Brief
Parkland Corporation, an Alberta-based multi-national company with a refinery in Burnaby, British Columbia, announced last week that it has successfully produced Canada’s first batch of “low-carbon aviation fuel (LCAF)”. Air Canada was the buyer of […]
New RCAF Career and Education Opportunities
Canada’s air force is embarking on a pair of initiatives aimed at attracting new recruits for key positions. The first is the adoption into regular force employment of the Air Operations Support Technician (AOS Tech). […]
Some of this Week’s Other Highlights in Brief
The acquisition of a fleet of Boeing P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft by the RCAF crossed a landmark last week when the US Navy placed a 17-aircraft order with Boeing. The order will be […]
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