Scare at the Gimli Motorsports Park

I see that trending right now on CT is the tag #nearesttrack which reminded me of the incredible incident that occurred at the nearest track to where I live: the infamous Gimli Glider.

North of one of the coldest cities in the world is the Gimli Motorsports Park, a multi-track motorsports facility located in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. The 95-hectare facility features a 1/4-mile dragstrip, a 2.09 kilometre road racing course, a one-kilometre karting track and a two-kilometre motocross track. Formerly a Royal Canadian Air Force Base, the facility is much like the famous Top Gear test track in England, kind of “drawn in” on the former runway, taxiways, and surrounding roads. Unfortunately this made it an easy target for a worried pilot looking to make an emergency landing.

On July 23, 1983 that’s exactly what happened. Air Canada Flight 143, a Boeing 767 jet, ran out of fuel at an altitude of 12,500 metres above sea level, about halfway through its Montreal to Edmonton flight. No longer under power and falling from the sky the the crew at first decided to land at the international airport in Winnipeg but, realizing that they would not make Winnipeg at the rate they were descending, decided to land at the now defunct airforce base in Gimli. (One of the two runways was still operational to air traffic. Guess which one the 767 landed on.)

The aircrafts route.

Unknown to the pilot or to the air traffic controller, a part of the facility had been converted to a race track complex. An Automobile Sport Clubs-sanctioned sports car race was underway on the Saturday of the incident and the area around the decommissioned runway was full of cars and campers. Part of the decommissioned runway was being used to stage the race.

The aircraft was coming in too high and fast, raising the danger of running off the runway before it could be stopped. The lack of hydraulic pressure prevented the flap from extending which would have slowed speed of the aircraft and increased the lift on the wings to allow the aircraft to be slowed for a safe landing. The pilots briefly considered a 360-degree turn to reduce speed and altitude, but decided that they did not have enough altitude for the manoeuvre. Instead they decided to execute a forward slip to increase drag and lose altitude. With all of its engines out, the plane made virtually no noise during its approach. People on the ground had no warning of the impromptu landing and had little time to flee.

When the plane touched down the front gear collapsed and the jet slid into the dragstrip’s guardrail which helped aid in stopping the aircraft, 17 minutes after running out of fuel. Fortunatly all passengers and crew were unharmed during the whole ordeal and the plane suffered minimal damage, was repaired, refueled, and flew out of Gimli (on the correct runway) some months later.

What was the coolest thing you’ve seen at the track?