ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Air Canada Flight 797

Okay, so a long time ago there was an airplane called Air Canada Flight 797. It was flying through the sky and everything was going well until something started to go wrong. You know how sometimes your house can get really really hot if you leave the oven on too long? Well, that's kind of what happened to this airplane. It got really hot inside, but instead of being because of an oven, it was because something was on fire.

Unfortunately, the people on the plane didn't know right away that there was a fire, and they weren't able to put it out before it got really really big. They tried using fire extinguishers, but it didn't work. Then, they realized that they needed to go down to the ground right away to get help.

When an airplane has a problem, it needs to be able to land safely. But, because the fire was so big, it made it really hard for the pilot to see out of the windows. Plus, because of all the smoke and flames, there wasn't enough oxygen for the people on the plane to breathe.

Thankfully, the pilot was able to find a place to land safely, but some people on the plane got very sick from the smoke, and unfortunately some even died. It was a very sad and scary situation, and lots of people were very worried and sad for a long time afterwards.

Since then, airplanes have become much safer and there are different rules and procedures to help prevent situations like this from happening again.