Aloha everyone! We’re starting the week so refreshed and full of nature, Yayy!
Definitely “full of nature” but I’m not gonna agree with you on being “REFRESHED”.
Don’t mind him, we had a really nice Sunday in Walden Pond.. What else would a person ask?!
I admit Walden is incredible, indeed. Only if you’re clever enough to make sure you’ve got enough gas to go back home. I mean, I just wanted a day trip. I wasn’t planning to settle in Walden like Henry David Thoreau. Just to make it clear for everyone; we spontaneously decided to drive to Walden Pond last sunday.
Which was MY brilliant idea.
Yeah Also, you had that “brilliant idea” to fill only half of the gas tank. Instead of taking a walk by the lake, we ended up walking to find a gas station.
It was our mini survival adventure. Didn’t you still have a lot of fun, tho?
I can admit it served SOO well for a purpose. At some point, we got lost but we also found what we’re gonna be talking about today.
Yeah, so, buckle up fellas! And hold tight. This is your captain speaking; we’re gonna be flying a lot today.
“Let’s kick the tires and light the fires.” I’m not sure how you feel while flying on a plane but sometimes I can’t stop having some crazy scenarios in my mind.
It is more like a cradle for me. I start sleeping like a baby.
Let’s see if you could sleep like a baby this time. So, our plane is called Air Canada 143, supposed to fly from Montreal to.. Ottawa, I guess. Pre-flight check time! Do you know how fuel loading works for airplanes?
Uhm.. it should be through a device calculating.
True but there was a problem with the computer so the maintenance crew were calculating the fuel load manually.
Uff.. that sounds stressful.
I mean they checked it like 3 times and everything seemed fine. She reached Ottawa with no problem but Captain Robert Pearson sensed that there was something wrong, so he had her checked again.
Did anything come up?
Nope. With his co-pilot Maurice Quintal, they also concluded that she had around 45,000 pounds of fuel, which was MORE than enough. So they took off for Edmonton but in fact they had about half of that, around 22,300 pounds.
Whaaat? How could they miss it even tho they checked it like a thousand times?
There was one thing everybody missed out. Canada was switching from the imperial system of measurement to metric back then. So all the new planes including this beauty were programmed into a metric system.
Does it mean the crew calculated the necessary fuel intake according to pounds instead of kilos?
Exactly! So since 1 kg is around 2 pounds, the crew was filling the tank with the given number, thinking that it was supposed to be in pounds. It should’ve had 22,300kg on board but instead they calculated it as 22,300 pounds which is actually equal to 10,000kg.
Half of the amount needed! So what exactly happened when the last drop of fuel was used up?
They were already 41,000 feet high. At first the left wing gave some warning but it was not a serious thing. The plane could still fly. Then when the second warning appeared, They knew they literally got in a pickle!
I am really wondering how this is gonna end up as a survival story..
Thanks to our experienced captains! They decided to change the course to a closer place for an emergency landing. However, after a while, both engines stopped working entirely. In that case they had to say goodbye to George as well..
Can you see my goosebumps? [he shows his arm] If we were the pilots on that plane we would be sweating it out instead of joking around as usual. Who was George btw?
George is a nickname used for the autopilot system. Captain Pearson and Quintal were also terrified. They were checking the manuals but there was no instruction for a complete shutdown situation.
Didn’t they get in touch with the air traffic control?
Well, no engines, no radar responder. They couldn’t speak to anyone.
How did they figure it out then?
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