Causality 65: Gimli Glider

3 September, 2026

CURRENT

In 1983 a newly introduced 767 ran out of fuel mid-flight and the pilots were able to land completely dead-stick. Whilst 0.8kg/L and 1.77lbs/L represent the same density, when the wrong one was used in a refuelling calculation they came up well short. Why they were forced to manually calculate their fuel at all, was not nearly as controversial as the pilots decision to fly. We look at what went wrong and what went right in the incident of the Gimli Glider.
Duration 33 minutes and 38 seconds Direct Download

Show Notes

Investigation Report:

Commentary Articles:

General Information:


Episode Gold Producers: 'r', Steven Bridle, Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto and Steve Branam.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring, Ian Gallagher and Jamie Russell.
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John Chidgey

John Chidgey

John is an Electrical, Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineer, software developer, podcaster, vocal actor and runs TechDistortion and the Engineered Network. John is a Chartered Professional Engineer in both Electrical Engineering and Information, Telecommunications and Electronics Engineering (ITEE) and a semi-regular conference speaker.

John has produced and appeared on many podcasts including Pragmatic and Causality and is available for hire for Vocal Acting or advertising. He has experience and interest in HMI Design, Alarm Management, Cyber-security and Root Cause Analysis.

Described as the David Attenborough of disasters, and a Dreamy Narrator with Great Pipes by the Podfather Adam Curry.

You can find him on the Fediverse and on Twitter.