Robert Piché

Robert Piché (born November 5, 1952 in Mont-Joli , Québec ) is a Canadian pilot and was the captain of Air Transat flight 236 , which ran out of kerosene on August 24, 2001 in an Airbus over the Atlantic due to a tank leak. Piché then, together with his co-pilot, succeeded in the longest gliding flight of a jet aircraft in history and the safe landing on the Azores. He has received several awards for this flying performance. However, Piché had not recognized the fuel loss in time and even increased it in the course of the accident. The investigation report on the accident concluded that the fuel would have lasted until landing had the pilots carried out the procedures provided for in the event of a fuel leak.

Life

After Piché gained great popularity due to his glide record and the lives saved with it, the cover story of a Canadian magazine revealed a previous prison sentence. In 1983 he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for drug smuggling in the USA. However, he was released after only 16 months in a US prison in Georgia. Unlike the general public, his employer knew his past.

Others

Another long glide due to a lack of kerosene was the " Gimli-Glider ".

Awards

• Superior Airmanship Award - on August 22nd, 2002 from the Air Line Pilots Association, International together with his co-pilot De Jager
• Landry Trophy

literature

• Pierre Cayouette: Sauvetage aux Açores. Libre Expression, 2005, ISBN 2764801882 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Accident Investigation Final Report , p. 63