Quick thinking saves lives

The 156-tonne Gimli Glider

The above article summarizes in detail the historic flight from Montreal to Edmonton which never made it to its destination. It crash landed in a small Royal Canadian Air Force station in the town of Gimli. The story is full of human mistakes, computing errors and design errors all leading to the eventual lack of gas needed for the long trip from Montreal to Edmonton.

Interwoven between the negative chain of events is the amazing story of the pilot who crash landed the plane successfully in that tiny town of Gimli. The story is well known and only this brief summary is given here. The pilots, Captain Bob Pearson
and First Officer Maurice Quintal, did some rather unusual yaw and pitch slowing for common with a glider to slow the plane enough to make a landing. The unusual tactics combined with broken front landing gear provided enough deceleration to crash land the plane.

Besides the obvious good news of a successful crash landing, there is a hidden element in this artical which, I believe, qualifies it for the Hope Chest. We have learned the intesnse desire of humans to survive in the most difficult of circumstanses. Life is to be treasured, valued and respected. Stories of heros like the pilots of flight 143 show us what people are capable of to sustain life. In those dire situations, people will always look with hope for the best possible outcome. That inborn desire for success, for good news, and for life is the hope we already have in us. We just need to do better at reminding everyone.