Backstory Report: new case files https://backstoryreport.com/ Backstory reopens real events and places from the public record: air accidents from the investigators' final reports, and the shape of places from maps and measured data. Every case is a file you can work through, with the full text, the timeline, the map and every source by page. en File 006: How did a new 767 run out of fuel over Ontario? https://backstoryreport.com/cases/air-canada-143-gimli-glider/ https://backstoryreport.com/cases/air-canada-143-gimli-glider/ The gauges were blank, so the fuel was measured with a stick and a sum done by hand. The factor used, 1.77, gave pounds, and everyone read the answer as kilograms. The aircraft left with about half the fuel the crew believed it had. Air File 005: Four runways offered, one river taken. Why the Hudson? https://backstoryreport.com/cases/us-airways-1549-hudson/ https://backstoryreport.com/cases/us-airways-1549-hudson/ Climbing out of LaGuardia, flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese and both engines lost almost all their thrust. Controllers offered runways at LaGuardia and Teterboro. The captain answered: we're gonna be in the Hudson. AirWater File 004: 142 miles one way, 315 the other. Which way does the river want to go? https://backstoryreport.com/cases/mississippi-atchafalaya-old-river/ https://backstoryreport.com/cases/mississippi-atchafalaya-old-river/ At Old River the Atchafalaya offers the Mississippi a shorter way to the Gulf: 142 miles against 315. In 1952 a geologist warned the diversion would become uncontrollable. Since 1962, gates have held the split near 30 per cent. WaterLand File 003: Thirty-six alerts in twenty seconds. What did five pilots do next? https://backstoryreport.com/cases/qantas-32-engine-failure/ https://backstoryreport.com/cases/qantas-32-engine-failure/ About four minutes after take-off from Singapore, a turbine disc in engine 2 burst over Batam Island. The aircraft stayed in the air for another hour and 45 minutes, flew nine laps of a hold over the sea, and landed back at Changi. No one on board was hurt. Air File 002: How does a quarter of a country sit below the sea? https://backstoryreport.com/cases/netherlands-below-sea-level/ https://backstoryreport.com/cases/netherlands-below-sea-level/ Much of the low Netherlands was never sea at all. It sank, because people drained the peat it stands on. Then they pumped out lakes, closed off a sea, and after the flood of 1953, shortened the coast. WaterLand File 001: Why couldn't you take one train across Australia? https://backstoryreport.com/cases/australia-three-rail-gauges/ https://backstoryreport.com/cases/australia-three-rail-gauges/ The colonies laid three widths of track. Where the lines met, every passenger and every load changed trains. The first through train from Sydney to Melbourne ran in 1962. RailLand