25th Anniversary of "The Gimli Glider"

It may have been 25 years ago and I may have only been 11 but I remember it like it was yesterday.....well I remember bits and pieces of it. There were many many of us there that day and each of us have different memories. Being 11 I didn't realize the history I was witnessing, didn't realize then what could have happened if it weren't for the crew of that flight.

I remember racing was over for the day and the loud sound of cars rounding corners and accelerating had faded away. Everyone was cleaning up from the day of racing - racers working on their cars or putting away tools used that day. BBQs were lit and meals made. Kids were free to roam now that the course was closed to racecars for the day.

I remember I was taking a friends dog for a walk and was behind the old concession stand (which is no longer there) and as I stepped out from behind it there was the plane - coming through the sky towards us almost silently except for the whoosh of the air as it sliced though it.

I don't know why but I remember how quiet it was and then how loud it was as the plane touched down and the front of the plane fell ontop of the guardrail and slid along it.

I remember people yelling and running - not away from the plane but towards it, many with fire extinguishers in their hands.

I remember smoke and I remember people using fire extinguishers where the nose of the plane met pavement.

and I remember the yellow emergency exit slides ..... I will always remember those yellow slides probably because a) for the remainder of the weekend the plane sat just south of the racetrack with those yellow slides sticking out it's sides and b) almost every photo I've ever seen has been one with the yellow slides. It's an image that is etched in my mind and I will never ever forget.

Something else I will never forget is that after everything was over the co-pilot Maurice Quintal sat in our camper trailer and had a cup of coffee. An odd memory considering I don't remember anything else that happened after the passengers and crew were safely off the plane. I have no memories of police, fire or ambulance crews in attendance. I can't tell you where the passengers went afterwards or how they got there but I absolutely remember the co-pilot having coffee in our camper.

So today was the 25th anniversary. I didn't know, at age 11, the history I'd witnessed but I sure understand it now and I'm so glad I was able to attend the celebration today. It was wonderful to see some old friends from the car club that I hadn't seen in years and to listen to the speeches and stories told by different people about that day but for me, the highlight was meeting Maurice Quintal out on the dock - and having my picture taken with him. I was with one of the fellows from the car club and we introduced ourselves as having been there that day and he proceeds to tell us a story of one of his own memories from that day. He said he thinks about one woman often. She came up to him after everything had settled down that day and asked him if he would like a cup of coffee. I was floored. "That was my mother" I told him. Even now I can't believe he remembers my mother inviting him back to the camper and making him a cup of coffee. It's funny how this man whom I've wanted to meet again for so many many years also remembers one of the few solid memories I have of that day.

Over the years I've read newspaper articles and watched news reports about that day and that plane. Awhile back I discovered that there are people that actually 'stalked' the plane with fin # 604 nicknamed the Gimli Glider and tracked its whereabouts posting messages that the plane was spotted at such and such a gate and whatever airport it happened to be at. She had quite a fan club. I watched with a tear in my eye the news footage of the Gimli Gliders final flight to the desert in California, wishing like so many people that she could have come back to Gimli as her final resting place. I've also at times reflected on how much larger this piece of history could have been had it not been for the sheer determination of the pilot to stop that plane when he did...... a few hundred feet from dozens of motorhomes & campers with propane tanks, and dozens of racecars full of fuel and numerous spectators enjoying a quiet Family Weekend of camping and racing. The what-ifs are too scarey to think about.