What Happens If A Plane Runs Out Of Fuel?

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Imagine being 35,000 ft in the air, and suddenly your plane runs out of fuel. As impossible as it sounds, this actually happened on a real flight in early 2000's from Toronto to Lisbon. The aircraft lost fuel over the Atlantic Ocean, and both engines completely shut down. But here's the unbelievable part.

[00:00:19]With no engine power at all, the pilot glided the aircraft for nearly 20 minutes toward a small island runway, and somehow all 306 people on board survived. This can only happen because airplanes are designed to keep flying even after engine failure.