The Gimli Glider

I never knew how much math airline pilots were involved in, although after reading this story I have to question how good they are at it. In mid-1983 a manual mis-calculation of available fuel forced Boeing 767 pilots to use their passenger-filled plane as a glider in search of a runway. The pilots and flight controllers scrambled through several more calculations trying to determine how to save the plane.

Scary stuff.

Posted by etrigan at January 8, 2004 11:12 AM