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especially after that one Canadian airliner ran out of fuel mid flight because the ground crew didn't understand the difference between gallons and liters. The military still uses Kliks and meters for the most part, but the military does love their tradition so hoary units of measure like the knot are still used for ship and aircraft speed.
Actually that's what the film of the incident stated. However, if you look at a documentary of the incident (aka the Air Transat glider incident), what actually happened was that there was a fuel leak. From what I remember of the Air Crash Investigation's episode on it:
The leak was in an unusual location (i.e. it was leaking through the engine) so the warnings that came up in the cockpit were unusual so the captain suspected it was a problem with computer software. Even the ground-based technician the he called suspected it was a computer fault. Therefore, the captain didn't take the action necessary to stop the fuel leaking. It was lucky that ATC had diverted him earlier, due to weather conditions, otherwise the plane would not have been in gliding range of the Azores.
It was a twin engine Airbus with Rolls Royce engines.
The investigators found that the initial fault had been that a technician had put a part designed for another Rolls Royce engine in that engine because he didn't have the one for that particular engine to hand.
Whilst the air crew were hailed as heroes for getting the airline down safely, the investigators criticised them for not using their common sense and shutting down the number 2 engine.