Pilots land on a wing and a prayer

Reuters

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Jun 2, 2007
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WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Two New Zealand pilots whose plane ran out of fuel landed on a wing and a prayer, literally, local media reported on Wednesday. </img>
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Reuters
 

#juan

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Aug 30, 2005
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Running out of fuel in an airplane is one of the stupidest ways to die. You know how far you are going and you know how much fuel you need. Doesn't that sound simple? It is simple.....Put enough gas in your damned airplane.................
:roll:
 

lone wolf

Grossly Underrated
Nov 25, 2006
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In the bush near Sudbury
Running out of fuel in an airplane is one of the stupidest ways to die. You know how far you are going and you know how much fuel you need. Doesn't that sound simple? It is simple.....Put enough gas in your damned airplane.................
:roll:

Ever hear of the Gimli Glider ... or Air Transat and the Azores?

Woof!
 

#juan

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Aug 30, 2005
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I do know about the Gimli glider:
"Gimli Glider" is the nickname of an Air Canada aircraft which was involved in an infamous aviation incident. On 23 July 1983, a Boeing 767-200 jet, Air Canada Flight 143, ran completely out of fuel at 41,000 feet (12,500 m) altitude, about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton. The crew was able to glide the aircraft safely to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former airbase at Gimli, Manitoba.[1]
The subsequent investigation revealed corporate failures and a chain of minor human errors which combined to defeat built-in safeguards. In addition, fuel loading was miscalculated through misunderstanding of the recently adopted metric system.
"The very simple fact remains that if you want to stay in the air, you have to have gas in the tank"..............In the words of an old flying instructor who is no longer with us.
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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Okay, I have to ask, how many of you would go through something like that and not get a chill up your spine upon landing next to that sign?


As for pilot error, well, it's not the first time, won't be the last, that a pilot runs out of fuel. But, I bet it's the last time THOSE pilots do it. :lol:
 

#juan

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Aug 30, 2005
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NO pilot is exempt from Murphy's Law....

Woof!

Absolutely right. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong, and at the worst possible time. That same flying instructor used to talk about "running out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas, similtaneously"(sp)
 

Risus

Genius
May 24, 2006
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Running out of fuel in an airplane is one of the stupidest ways to die. You know how far you are going and you know how much fuel you need. Doesn't that sound simple? It is simple.....Put enough gas in your damned airplane.................
:roll:

The pilots might have relied on a ground crew to refuel the plane, so don't jump to conclusions...