In 1983, an Air Canada flight ran out of fuel above Gimli, Manitoba. Canada had switched to the metric system in 1970, and the plane is reported to have been Air Canada’s first aircraft to use metric measurements. The plane’s on-board fuel gauge was not working, so the crew used measuring “dripsticks” to check how much fuel the plane took on during refuelling. Things went wrong when they converted this measurement of volume into one of weight. They got the number right, but the unit wrong – mistaking pounds of fuel for kilograms. As a result the plane was carrying about half as much fuel as they thought. Luckily, the pilot was able to land the plane safely on the Gimli runway, giving the plane the nickname “Gimli Glider”.
from Crazy Facts http://ift.tt/T0u1R8
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