Re: 20th anniversary of the \"Gimli Glider\"
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Using a computer to calculate fuel also caused confusion over responsibilities. In the past, when fuel was calculated manually, a flight engineer’s duties included checking the fuel load. Flight engineers were a thing of the past on this 767, as a Presidential task force, under Ronald Reagan, had determined that aircraft could be built to be operated by two pilots instead of three, if the tasks previously given to the second officer (flight engineer) were either fully automated or handled by ground staff.
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Thanks President Reagan! Gotta love it when an
actor becomes a politician then tells everyone how they should do their jobs.
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The tale has an interesting postscript. After putting the aircraft down, Pearson was left waiting at Gimli until two in the morning for the Air Canada mechanics dispatched to assess the damage. Driving through the back roads from Winnipeg, they had run out of fuel.
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But
that is classic.
Great flying skills but one more story that proves it's not one thing that gets you it's a chain of small things.