A Canadian pilot remembered for a day making aviation history in Manitoba will receive a significant award at the national level next year.
“It is a Canadian story, they are Canadian pilots, and the story is known around the world,” said Barb Gluck, president of the Gimli Glider exhibit in Gimli, Man.
On July 23, 1983, Capt. Robert Pearson safely landed a Boeing 767 aircraft on a decommissioned airstrip in Gimli, about 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg. All 69 people on board, who were flying with Air Canada from Montreal to Edmonton, survived the emergency landing.
An investigation would later reveal the plane ran out of fuel due to a miscalculation of the fuel load.
Now, the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame has recently announced its new inductees for the 2027 awards ceremony to be held in Calgary, next September.
Pearson, 91, and the late First Officer Maurice Quintal have been honoured with the Canadian Aviation Distinction Award. The award was given for the skill and teamwork that brought the plane, later to be known as the “Gimli Glider,” safely to the ground.
“I think knowing him because it’s Canadian, it’s more important to him than any of the other awards he got because it’s his country that has finally done this,” Gluck said.
“It’s really wonderful that they’ve taken the step to make this possible for two of them to be installed that were in that cockpit.”
Gluck told CTV News the hall of fame tried to induct Pearson many years ago, but Pearson declined saying he would want his co-pilot Quintal to be honoured alongside him. That day will finally come.
Pearson, who spoke with CTV News by phone Tuesday, said he only learned last week that the induction was going ahead. He called the news “a surprise, but not a surprise,” noting that two fellow pilots had been pushing for it for years.
He said he never sought the spotlight and was content with a 39-year flying career and has received many awards around the world over the years.
“So, to have this (honour), the biggest one I guess we could get in Canada now, is very satisfying, I must say,” Pearson said.
“We were getting questions, if not weekly, sometimes daily, on why they weren’t in the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, and they were getting awards from around the world,” Gluck said on Monday.
Recently, Pearson was asked to speak at an aviation conference in California. Gimli Glider exhibit volunteer Glen Hooper, who CTV News spoke with in June 2025, joined him for the trip.
Hooper spoke to Gluck on the phone last week and said the two could not believe the amount of respect shown to Pearson during their travels down south.
“He says, ‘There are people here from around the world and the respect for Bob, it’s like he’s an amazing rock star,’” Gluck said.
“I have done this for six years, and I have never heard the audience so quiet.”
Gluck said Pearson and Hooper had a chance to visit the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif. where the original cockpit of the plane rested in an airliner scrap field. The area is more commonly known as the “boneyard.”
Gluck and Hooper surprised Pearson last year when they brought the original cockpit back from California to be restored and put on display at the Gimli Glider exhibit.
Now, Gluck said the team of volunteers has tracked down Boeing 767 windows to be refurbished and placed in the original cockpit after the original windows were destroyed.
“They spent a good afternoon in that boneyard where he happened to see planes he’s never seen before, and I mean he was in his element because aviation has been his dream from his childhood, Bob,” Gluck said.
She said they plan on having the cockpit fully restored for the landing anniversary next July where Pearson will be asked to be in attendance. Pilots from across the country still come to the exhibit to learn more about Pearson’s heroism on display from 1983.
Pearson said he is pleased by the restoration effort, noting he was the last to fly that aircraft.
“We hear frequently, ‘If I ever get in trouble, I’m going to think what would Captain Pearson have done,’” Gluck said.
“He’s just a regular guy. That’s what I respect about him so much.”
