TORONTO -- The two pilots who safely landed the legendary "Gimli Glider" will be on board as it makes its final flight.
Pilot Robert Pearson and his first officer Maurice Quintal will board the Air Canada Boeing 767 in Montreal to oversee today's flight that will carry it to it's final resting place at California's Mojave Airport.
The 'Gimli Glider' sits on the airstrip in Gimli in this July 1983 photo. The Boeing 767 makes its final flight today.
Three of the six flight attendants who were on Flight 143 will also be on board.
In July 1983, Flight 143 was on its way to Edmonton from Montreal when it ran out of fuel around the Ontario-Manitoba border.
Pearson and Quintal managed to glide the plane, which had 61 passengers and eight crew members on board, 200 kilometres and then land it at an airstrip in Gimli, Manitoba.
It turns out the plane was only carrying half the amount of fuel it required for the journey because of a metric conversion error that was made on the ground.
Air Canada is organizing and paying for Thursday's reunion, but it won't comment on it.
Pearson says he doesn't think any airline likes publicity about accidents, even if they don't result in tragedy.
The Canadian Press
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