Hey, you can't just post a picture of Millard's Hansa Jet and not include The Story.
The pilots of the famous "Gimli Glider," who in July 1983 landed their Air Canada Boeing 767 at Gimli, Man., after it ran out of fuel, were simply following (Carl) Millard's example. He's believed to be the first person ever to "dead-stick" a commercial jet to a safe landing.
"And that was in the dark, in a snowstorm, in cloud," his son Wayne told the Star yesterday.
Millard was flying a twin-engine Hansa jet, a 10-seater with a full load, from St. John's to Toronto on a December night in 1973. As the plane flew over Moncton, contaminated fuel caused both engines to fail.
With only a few instruments working, the plane entered cloud at 30,000 feet. Millard had to calculate his gliding speed and angle of descent to stay on track for Moncton airport. When the Hansa broke out of the dense, low-lying cloud, it was only 200 feet above ground with the runway right ahead.
Carl Millard-93-Pioneering pilot