How I Got The Photo – Wayne Glowacki

(Thirty-five years ago, the Gimli Glider made international headlines after the Air Canada jet ran out of fuel and had to land with no engines and no electronic controls. Wayne Glowacki‘s photo showed the story to the world.)

An Air Canada Boeing 767 sits on an abandoned runway in Gimli, Manitoba, July 24, 1983, following an emergency landing on July 23 after the jet ran out of fuel while flying from Montreal to Edmonton. The defunct airstrip is used by the Winnipeg Sports Car Club whose members helped put out a small fire in the nose of the plane. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

I received a phone call at home late Saturday evening, July 23, 1983, from Winnipeg Free Press night photographer, Ken Gigliotti. He informed me that an Air Canada 767 jet had just made an emergency landing in Gimli, Manitoba, on an abandoned military airstrip, an hour’s drive north of Winnipeg.

As none of the 61 passengers and 8 crew were seriously injured, Ken suggested that I head out to Gimli to arrive for sunrise Sunday morning.

While driving to the scene, I remember planning my strategy. I would need to get access to the site and fully expected that there would be a large area cordoned off by the RCMP.

To my astonishment, I was able to drive up quite close to the scene of the plane with its crumpled front landing gear and aviation investigators walking all around the jet.

Years earlier, this airstrip had been turned into a quarter-mile dragstrip with a steel guard rail running down the centre of the former runway. A road racing track was built on another part of the runway next to the dragway. The jet had managed to land on the dragstrip which by chance wasn’t in use at the time.

While I was taking pictures, I was informed that the road racing event scheduled for that Sunday afternoon would still be taking place. It occurred to me that the juxtaposition of the race could provide the perfect context of this unusual landing spot.

I spent the morning getting different angles of the plane and waited until the afternoon for the road racing action to begin. Sure enough, while looking through my 400mm lens, it all came together. But just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, an investigator decided to go for a stroll on the 767’s wing!

At that time, my deadline for the next day’s paper was about 11pm Sunday so there was no rushing needed. I could concentrate on taking the best picture.

Back at the office that evening, I printed this particular image, taken with Ilford HP5 black and white film, to size to be used across the front page under the banner. This is still one of my favourite pictures I had the opportunity to capture during my 43-year career at the Winnipeg Free Press.