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© Copyright 1996, Jim Loy
This was actually the headline for an AP news story, on July 29, 1983. Here is the complete story:
Metric Conversion Blamed for Canadian Jet's Forced Landing
MONTREAL (AP) -- Air Canada said today that a measurement error in the "conversion and comunication" of metric weight and volume information caused a fuel shortage that forced a Boeing 767 to make an emergency landing last week.
"Our investigation indicates the fuel shortage was a result of errors during the manual fuel management procedure," said Air Canada spokesman Denis Chagnon.
The plane, with 61 passengers and a crew of eight, went into a powerless glide from 39,930 feet to a bumpy landing on a Gimli, Manitoba airstrip north of Winipeg. One woman was taken to a hospital for observation, but no one was injured.
Airline workers resorted to a manual fueling procedure when an electronic system on the aircraft -- one of four Air Canada planes that have some metric systems -- failed.
The fuel in the aircraft is measured in centimeters and converted to liters before departure. That figure is converted to pounds and then to kilograms so that the pilot can calculate the flight plan. It was during this procedure that the error was made, the airline spokesman said.
Chagnon said the exact point at which the error occurred has not been established, but an investigation by the Canadian Aviation Safety Bureau will continue.
An Air Canada statement said Friday that it has instituted a new set of preventive and operating procedures for Boeing 767s. These include review of the calculation and manual fuel measurement procedures for planes that have metric systems and a re-examination of training programs and procedures. It said that 767 aircraft will be allowed to depart only when all components of the fuel tank quantity-indication systems are fully operative.
The airline began using Boeing 767s last fall.
Does that story sound stupid to you. Me too. Why don't they throw some more conversion steps in there. There are a few units of measurements that they missed. It seems that centimeters refers to the height of air from the top of the fuel to the top of the fuel tank. They get liters by reading a table that goes with the specific kind of airplane.
This story is a good joke, except that it almost ended in disaster.
I understand that this incident was the subject of a TV movie.