Both Engines Died At 41,000 Feet — Canada’s Metric Switch Left A Brand New Boeing 767 With Half The Fuel It Needed (opens in new tab)

Forty-three years ago, a brand new Boeing 767 cruising at 41,000 feet over Canada went quiet as both engines failed — not because of sabotage or mechanical collapse, but because a metric conversion mistake had sent it into the sky with only half the fuel it needed. What happened next became one of aviation’s most famous survival stories: a powerless widebody gliding toward an old air base that was no longer really an air base at all.