I was a member of the WSCC "ground crew" when the Gimli glider made its landing.
I reject Mr. Ofusio's damning comment about the pilot's inability to calculate the right fuel load. On talking with pilot Pearson, he pointed out that they were trained for a three-person cockpit. Air Canada decided to have only 2 people in the cockpit, but failed to give the pilots the information needed to be able to properly calculate their fuel.
Another thing ignored, was when pilots were faced with an impossible situation, they used their aeronautical skills to successfully land a 200 ton "rock" without causing any death either on the aircraft or on the ground. This problem has been programmed into simulators, but no other pilot has been able to successfully complete the landing.
What's more, the airplane was repaired and put back into service for another 25 years.
Now CG-AUN rests in the Arizona desert and is slowly being parted out.
I bought a part of the fuselage converted to a baggage tag from a company that specializes in this from retired aircraft. I keep it as momento of that day.