Air Transat Flight 236 was a transatlantic flight bound for Lisbon, Portugal, from Toronto, Canada, that lost all engine power while flying over the Atlantic Ocean on August 24, 2001. The Airbus A330 ran out of fuel because of a fuel leak caused by improper maintenance.

One of the most famous incidents of a commercial aircraft running out of fuel over the ocean is Air Transat Flight 236. On August 24, 2001, an Airbus A330 traveling from Toronto to Lisbon developed a massive fuel leak caused by improper maintenance of the right engine. While over the Atlantic Ocean, the leak eventually caused both engines to "flame out," leaving the aircraft without power. Under the command of Captain Robert Piché, the plane glided for approximately 75 miles (121 km)—the longest glide in commercial aviation history—before making a successful emergency landing at Lajes Air Base in the Azores. All 306 people on board survived, though some suffered minor injuries during the emergency evacuation. Another notable "fuel exhaustion" event is Air Canada Flight 143 (the "Gimli Glider") in 1983, though it occurred over land (Manitoba) rather than the ocean; it was caused by a metric conversion error during refueling. These incidents led to significant changes in fuel-leak detection procedures and cross-feed management protocols in modern aviation to ensure that a single leak cannot deplete the entire fuel supply of an aircraft without the crew's early intervention.