Gimli Glider: Manitoba community marking anniversary [Video]

It’s been nearly 40 years since a Boeing 767 carrying more than 60 people onboard made a dramatic emergency landing in a small Manitoba community and became immortalized in the annals of the province’s history as the Gimli Glider.

The Manitoba community is now getting ready to mark the milestone 40th anniversary of the historic moment.

On July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 left Montreal for Edmonton at an altitude of about 12,500 metres. Around the halfway point, the plane ran out of fuel.

The pilots, Capt. Bob Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal, were able to avoid the disaster by landing the aircraft on the runway of an old military base in Gimli, Man.

Peter Grant with the Gimli Glider Museum said the issue stemmed from the fact that Canada was switching from the imperial to metric system at the time, and the computer on the plane that …