Guessing 767-300? Good job by all though
Calgary lawyer's luck tested on flight
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Font: * * * * Sarah McGinnis, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Three days after being appointed as a Queen's Counsel, a prominent Calgary lawyer was on a plane when one of its engines failed.
Shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, Gerald Chipeur and his 16-year-old daughter Lauren sleepily settled into their seats for a flight from Honolulu to Sydney, Australia.
Minutes after takeoff, they heard a large bang.
"My daughter said, 'That doesn't sound great. We're losing power,' " said the lawyer, known for fighting to protect human rights and religious freedoms by taking cases to the Supreme Court of Canada.
"I reassured her and said there was no problem . . . but she was right."
The Boeing 767 grew eerily quiet. The pilot asked service staff to come to the cockpit.
Moments later, he informed the 142 passengers they would be returning to Hawaii because of an engine malfunction.
Chipeur looked out the window at the twinkling lights of Honolulu below. He knew a runway was minutes away, but still felt uneasy.
"When we landed, a tire blew on one side of the large airplane because it was too heavy with all that fuel," Chipeur said.
Air Canada confirmed Flight 045 was rerouted because one of its two engines wasn't working properly.
"The aircraft landed safely. At no time were passengers in any danger," said Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah.
A replacement was sent to take the passengers to Sydney, 12 hours after their original flight took off, she said.
Despite Air Canada's assurances, Chipeur said things could have proved much worse if the captain and crew hadn't acted swiftly. "A disaster was averted here."
Chipeur said he'll have a lot more faith in his daughter's intuition from now on.
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