Manitoba man who had close call with Gimli Glider in’83 has another near miss

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/08/2008 (6594 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SELKIRK, Man. – A man who had to pedal for his life 25 years ago to escape being struck by an Air Canada jet that ran out of fuel near Gimli, Man., has had another extremely close call with an aircraft.

Kerry Seabrook – who was a boy when the Gimli Glider touched down as he biked along an abandoned runway near Gimli July 23rd,’83 – had to swerve his pickup truck into a ditch Friday to avoid a collision with a small plane that made an emergency landing on a rural highway near Selkirk, Man.

“I had to pull my truck into the ditch to avoid him and we passed about five feet apart from each other,” the 36-year-old Seabrook told CTV.

“I could hear the wheels touch down beside my truck as he landed,” he said.

RCMP said no one was injured in Friday’s incident.

The pilot took off from the St. Andrews Airport, north of Winnipeg, in a Cessna 207 plane, said RCMP Sgt. Line Karpish.

Also riding in the plane, which was headed north for the Bloodvein First Nation, were two women and an infant.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane started to experience engine problems, Karpish said.

The pilot attempted to head back to the airport, but was forced to touch down on the highway, which runs between Winnipeg and Selkirk.

“I don’t think he had much of a choice at that point, it doesn’t sound like – his options were closing in fast on him.”

The plane came “very close” to hitting the truck on the highway, but a collision was avoided, said Karpish.

“It was a bit of a close encounter, but no injuries to anyone, no damage.”

Transport Canada was contacted to investigate further, Karpish said.

“From our perspective, we’re just happy that everybody’s walking away from this.”

Last month, Gimli marked the 25th anniversary of the emergency landing of an Air Canada 767 that ran out of fuel at 12,000 metres over northern Ontario as it flew from Montreal to Edmonton with 69 passengers and crew on board.

Retired pilot Bob Pearson was applauded, cheered and embraced by residents of the lakefront community during festivities to mark what has become a historic event.

On July 23,’83, with his jet out of fuel and no chance of making it to Winnipeg, Pearson glided the massive aircraft to an abandoned airstrip in Gimli, about 100 kilometres north.

Seabrook was among a group of boys who were riding bicycles at the far end of the airstrip, which had been turned into a drag strip.

Another boy, Art Zuke, recalled their horror as they watched the crippled airliner plunging out of the sky.

“We were fixated on this plane coming in, like a deer fixated on the headlights of a car coming at it,” he recalled in an interview last month.

As the boys clued in that they were in danger, they scrambled to get out of the way as the plane skidded towards them, grinding against the pavement in a shower of sparks.

“Looking up and seeing especially two boys, I remember the look of horror. It must have been pretty terrifying for them,” recalled Pearson.

The crash was blamed on several errors, including faulty fuel measurement equipment and computation errors converting imperial gallons to metric.

The big jet was loaded with only about half the fuel it required to make it to Edmonton.

Pearson, who retired in’93, was initially disciplined by the airline along with co-pilot Maurice Quintal. Their union filed a grievance and the measures were withdrawn.