July 23, 2016 marks the 33rd anniversary of the “Gimli Glider” incident in 1983. Chris Dion was a small child on board flight 143 travelling with his parents, Rick and Pearl Dion. He has saved and framed the boarding passes from the flight and agreed to share the images with our readers. Chris now lives in Surrey, British Columbia. Did you know that a feature film was made in 1995 based on the incident and that Captain Robert Pearson appears in the film in a cameo role? Click here to view the complete film, ‘Freefall – Flight 174’, on YouTube. Captain Pearson appears at 3:45 as a flight simulator examiner. Spoiler alert: The film is ‘based’ on the incident and has some inaccuracies. Click here for IMDB trivia on the film. |
Najam Jafri, after reading NL # 1342 sent us this memory - Nice reading the NetLetter bringing up all the memories of Air Canada and Fin # 604 once again. Talking about Gimli Glider someone came to me and asked if I wanted to say goodbye to 604. When I arrived it was leaving the hanger and I joined the crowd present to say goodbye. It was January 24, 2008 and I took my retirement as of February 1, 2008. I happened to work on its recovery at YWG in September 1983. I have these photos of 604 taken during repair. You can see the belly of aircraft was ripped apart and we were changing the lower skin. |
Myself working on the belly skin. |
Myself sitting in the engine nacelle. |
Here we have myself, Jean Luc Cruhen sitting in the inlet, Al Capagreco sitting in the chair and I think the person holding cap is Chris McNelly but I am not sure. |
Myself working on the cargo bay; I don't remember the name of the person watching me It was 33 years ago. Regards, Najam |
Norman Hogwood, in New Zealand, has sent this information and photo - FARTEX Reunion - Planned for early October, 2016, probably at the BC Aviation Museum at YYJ. Here we have a photo of the last reunion in September, 2011. |
Caz Cazwell is looking for some help identifying members of the crews that took deliveries of the 3 A300 aircraft leased by Wardair in 1988. See NL 1342 for the full story. Click each image to view full size. |
Delivery of C-GIZL - I can only ID Danny McNiven (VP-maint) in the centre & Doug Nicholson to his right. |
Delivery of C-GIZJ – I can only ID Kenny Allan in the centre. |
Delivery of C-GIZN – I can only ID Kenny Allan on the left & Doug Nicholson second from the right |
I knew them all when I took the shots, but now 'grrrr' I can’t. |
Click here for his aircraft pic gallery or visit his Flickr page |
The July 1st, 1946 flight 303, DC-3 CF-TEG was the inauguration of service into Chicago from London, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal was a big event in the company's story. Brian Losito has sent us some photos from the TCA/Air Canada archives. Here we have the arrival in Chicago of the inaugural flight. |
The Route to Hong Kong (with a stopover in Anchorage)
In our last issue I mentioned that the Airbus A340 served the YVR-HKG route for a few years between the B747 and B777 fleets. My first trip to Hong Kong was in September 2007 on an A340 that became the most interesting flight of my life.
My actual destination was the beautiful city of Guilin in China’s Guangxi province but I planned to tour Hong Kong for a couple of days before moving on.
I was given a window seat just behind the wing on the port side of the aircraft with no one sitting beside me. A fellow stock keeper was on the same flight and his sister happened to be the in-charge flight attendant. The flight took off in the early afternoon and I settled in comfortably to enjoy the ride.
At the time, movies were still projected on screens in each cabin with the flight map visible in between the entertainment. About four hours into the flight, as the first movie was ending, I felt the aircraft bank sharply but I did not think anything of it.
After the movie credits the flight map appeared on the screen and clearly showed that the aircraft had reversed course and was headed for Anchorage, Alaska. The captain came on p.a. almost immediately and explained that they had to shut down the No. 4 engine and that we would be shortly landing in Anchorage. The adventure had begun.
I watched the fuel jettison out through tubes in the wings as the aircraft descended. Still, the aircraft hit the runway very hard. When we arrived at the gate (around 18:00) we were advised that we would not be permitted off the plane but, optimistically, the repair should not take very long. The problem was a fuel pump seal and United Airlines was our maintenance provider and they were contacting an AME (Aircraft Maintenance Engineer) to change the seal.
Apparently, this was not an easy task. Hours passed as we waited for the AME to be found. It was now 22:00 and we were advised that UAL had not been successful in finding their AME and that we would finally be permitted to leave the aircraft and be shuttled to hotels for the night.
Customs was chaos and it was midnight before we were boarded on buses and driven to downtown hotels. Check in was delayed because UAL had not faxed confirmation that they would be paying for the rooms so we had to use our own credits cards as guarantees. This was sorted out by morning and we were given breakfast vouchers to a nearby restaurant.
We were back on the bus at 09:00 to board the aircraft by 10:00. Apparently UAL found their AME and the seal had been replaced. However, when we were again settled into our seats it was announced that FAA rules stipulated that a second maintenance signature was required to allow the aircraft to depart. Once again, UAL was having trouble finding a qualified person. Again, hours passed as we sat awaiting any positive announcements but none came. At around 16:00 the captain announced that arrangements were being made to fly an Air Canada AMR up from Vancouver and it would be several more hours.
For the most part all the passengers sat quietly but tempers did flare a couple of times and the cabin crew did there best to remain but they were as trapped as we were and the concern was also visible on their faces. All I had to read during the hours that passed was a Mandarin phrase book; you’d think that I would have become fluent during this time.
The captain came on the p.a. again around 17:00 to give us an update but he was interrupted shortly after he began speaking. He came back on a few minutes later with great news; UAL had found a second AME and he was on his way to the airport.
Finally, we were pushed back from the gate a full 24 hours after landing and continued on the Hong Kong. I had one day to tour Hong Kong before flying to Guilin where I had a wonderful time touring one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have returned to Hong Kong several times since then but this will always be my most memorable trip. Pictured at right is myself in front of Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin.
Were any of our readers on or involved with this flight? Possibly members of the flight or cabin crews?
Ken Pickford - NetLetter Proofreader
We'd like to publicly thank and acknowledge Ken Pickford who has recently volunteered to proof the NetLetter for us before it arrives in your inbox. Ken is a long time NetLetter subscriber as well as being very knowledgeable in regard to sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, aviation in general, dates of events, as well as in aircraft details and identification. Since our long term intent is to have the NetLetter as a historical resource for future generations, it's important to have our facts correct.
We thank you for your continued assistance, Ken, and your attention to detail.
The NetLetter Team
(Terry, Alan and Wayne)
Patrick Kessack, LHR retiree, sends this request -
I am a retired TWA/AA employee who was based at LHR for 32 years latterly as Ramp Ops Manager based in Terminal 3.
My inquiry concerns a former Air Canada LHR employee who worked in Passenger Service in Terminal 3 in the late 1960s. Her married name was Anna Walker. She was of Russian parentage and was raised in Perth Western Australia and made her way to the U.K. circa 1965/66 where she joined AC and shortly thereafter married Cyril Walker in late 1966 or early 1967. She continued to work for AC for a number of years into the 1970s after her marriage.
I wonder if there is anyone in the U.K. AC Family or UK/EC Pionairs that might be able to help me make contact with this lady. I worked very closely with a number of AC management personnel at Heathrow during the 1970s/80s and 90s on AOC matters. Names that readily come to mind are Peter Baldry, Tony Coleman, Jack Morath, Peter Kemp, Andy Burgess, Derek Buckel.
Any help you are able to provide in making contact with any of the above personnel would be most appreciated.
Brgds
Patrick Kessack