Hi TN, I was in Gimli the year after doing my Glider Pilots Licence with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. At the time the pilots were lauded as heros and given some award by the International Aviation something-or-other, the name is french and I do not mean to undermine it, I just can't remember it. Anyway, as I said, they got an award but were put on suspension by Air Canada!!! The Captain of the flight was a current glider pilot himself and slipping is a normal part of those approaches. As mentioned they were going for Winnipeg, but realised they were not going to make it. Gimli, a former British Commenwealth Air Training Plan base built during WW2, about 150 miles north of Winnipeg, was offered and the F/O had trained there during his Air Force career. Gimli has 2 parallel runways, the western runway is closed and part of it is used as a drag strip. During the final approach, the crew could not get 3 greens, the nosegear would not lock down. The Captain realised they were too high, and put the 767 into a side slip. He later said he did not know if this had been tried, but they had no other options left now. Also, they had aimed for the drag stip, not the acutal runway. A freind of mine was instructing there and was about to line up on the active in a Cessna 150, looked to his right and saw the 767 in a slip on very short finals with kids on bikes and cars all trying desparatly to get out of the way. They sat there in that C150 in total suprise and shock! The crew got the 767 down, but the nosegear collapsed on contact with the runway. The aircraft rolled to a stop on the remaining runway. The captain then ordered an evac, and this is where the only injury occured!! Someone broke a leg hitting the ground off the chute! An absolutely amazing feat of airmanship and proves the adage "Never, never, never, never give up". There was no damage to the aircraft apart from the scraping from the runway on the area around the nosegear and the aircraft was back in service about a week or 2 later! The next year I was there we all walked out and looked at the area where they landed and you could still see the groove and scraping on the runway where the nosegear had collapsed. If you dig around, you should be able to find info on this incident, it makes for incredible reading. There was also a made for TV movie recreating this incident.
------------------
To an F16 with engine trouble, "You're number 2 behind the B52 with one engine shut down." Reply "Oh no, not the dreaded 7 engine approach!"