Jianchuan Airport parking space 411.
This parking position is a remote position, surrounded by flat land, without any buildings blocking the view. Jianchuan Airport is windy to begin with, and if there is no obstruction nearby, the wind would be howling.
Next to the light pole at the parking space, Xu Cang and Lu Jinghua hunched their heads with their hands tucked into their sleeves. Lu Jinghua even wore an ear warmer.
The Jianchuan Airport in early spring still had some lingering winter vibes. The night wind blew for a long time and it felt like a knife scraping at my face. Lu Jinghua leaned against the lamp post, lowered his head and cursed: "It wasn't this cold when I got off the plane after flying the night shift before. I should have brought a fur hat earlier."
"We've taken off. It's not usually this cold." Xu Cang grimaced in the wind, his cheeks reddening from the cold. "The airport is in a terrible location. There are so many places in Jianchuan City, but they chose such a bad one. The only two months in autumn are slightly better throughout the year. The rest of the time it's never calm."
Xu Cang was actually one step behind. Like Lu Jinghua, he did not expect the night wind to be so cold. He did not even go home to get some casual clothes and planned to go in wearing his uniform.
In the end, Lu Jinghua was thoughtful. He had his own car, so it was convenient for him to go home. He also brought an extra coat just in case. It was because of this coat that Xu Cang would have caught a cold and got sick, otherwise he would have caught a cold with just the thin uniform coat.
Xu Cang and Lu Jinghua didn't want to wait in such an environment, but the car in the inner field couldn't wait here forever, otherwise it would take too long and would be easily discovered by the convoy.
"What a fool you are! You have managed to get the position of general manager of the flight department, but you can't even allocate a backfield vehicle. How can you be a leader?" Xu Cang teased.
Although he added Lu Jinghua's coat, it was still not enough. Xu Cang's body was half stiff now, and he could only keep talking to cheer himself up.
When talking about this, Lu Jinghua's face turned red. It was not because of the cold, but because of embarrassment.
"The people above are keeping a close eye on me. How much privilege can a department manager like me have? I'm just taking money to do things." Lu Jinghua continued to defend himself: "Besides, we didn't report our private testing to the maintenance department, so we'd better keep a low profile."
Xu Cang snorted and rolled his eyes. Suddenly, a strong light came from a distance. Xu Cang squinted his eyes instinctively and found two car lights on from the other side of the driveway.
"Someone's coming?" Xu Cang stretched his head to look and found that it seemed to be a small orange pickup truck coming over: "Yes, the maintenance staff is here!"
Looking at the table below, it is indeed approaching the landing time. In this case, the people on this pickup truck should be doing post-flight maintenance.
Xu Cang used his elbow to nudge Lu Jinghua, who was still curled up for warmth. "Hey, hey, hey, it looks like the maintenance staff are here. Hurry up and think of your next excuse."
As I said before, they did not inform the maintenance department of their private testing of the aircraft. If some people in the maintenance department knew about it, there would be some trouble later, so they would definitely not tell the truth later and would change their words.
"Yeah, I see, they're finally here. I'll hide in the maintenance staff's car to avoid the wind." Compared to how to fool the maintenance staff, Lu Jinghua was more concerned about the issue of sheltering from the wind.
Sure enough, not long after, a pickup truck drove up to Xu Cang and his partner, and two maintenance personnel got out of the car. At first, the maintenance personnel thought Xu Cang and his partner were ground service personnel, but in the dim light, they found that one of them was Lu Jinghua, the general manager of the flight department.
Although they do not belong to the same department, Lu Jinghua is relatively well-known in Blue Sky Airlines.
One of the maintenance men looked at the two men who were frozen like dogs, his face full of confusion: "Boss Lu, what are you doing?"
"No big deal!" Lu Jinghua smiled pretentiously, "This 747 is the top priority of our company recently. The flight department attaches great importance to it, so they sent me here to do a surprise inspection of the aircraft."
The mechanic nodded, not quite understanding. He knew that this 747 was treated like a Buddha by Blue Sky Airlines, and the leaders of the maintenance and support department had repeatedly urged them to take good care of the aircraft. It was reasonable for the flight department to attach importance to it.
It’s just that although the flight department conducts surprise inspections, it is rare to see them checking the condition of the aircraft. After all, pilots are responsible for flying planes, but they don’t know the structural condition of the aircraft as well as maintenance personnel, and can’t tell whether there are any problems with the aircraft.
"Mr. Lu, we are responsible for the condition of this plane!" the maintenance man asked in confusion.
Lu Jinghua was not panicked at all, but showed a helpless look: "Of course I know that you are responsible for the plane, but you know brother... many things are decided by the leaders on the spur of the moment, and we can only listen to them, regardless of whether it is reasonable or not. Don't worry, I'm just following orders, and I'll report back after a while."
Lu Jinghua has fully understood the minds of grassroots employees. After all, scolding leaders is always politically correct.
Upon hearing Lu Jinghua's complaints, the maintenance worker immediately felt like he had found a soulmate, not to mention that Lu Jinghua's attitude was very good. In addition, Lu Jinghua was not from his department and there was no conflict of interest. The maintenance worker had no scruples and immediately agreed: "Yes, our team has been dealing with work orders every day recently, and there are several of them. Several times, the crew has been annoyed."
Lu Jinghua glared and said, "Which flight crew said you were annoyed? Tell me."
"No, no, everyone is very cooperative, just complaining a little." The maintenance man was very sensible and did not really report which crew it was: "Actually, don't say the crew is annoyed, we are annoyed too."
Lu Jinghua sighed, "That's right. The leader asked us to come over for inspection. We wanted to wait in the car in the back field at night but were not allowed to. As a result, we can only stay here and wait in the wind."
This seemed to have stirred up a hornet's nest, and the maintenance staff began to complain again. Perhaps Lu Jinghua was also trying to trick the maintenance staff and ended up tricking himself as well. Gradually, he became involved in the situation, and the two began to frantically complain about the problems in the company.
Just as the two were talking more and more excitedly, Xu Cang came closer and interrupted: "Brother, have you received any relevant notice from Boeing regarding the S2 switch of the Boeing 747?"
"Announcement, what announcement?" The maintenance man looked at Xu Cang in confusion.
Xu Cang paused: "For example, the power supply problem of the S2 main control or the strength problem of the L-shaped fixation..."
"Hiss... S2 switch, this..." Even a professional mechanic was a little uncertain when hearing this term, which shows how obscure this cabin door locking system is. The mechanic thought for a while and confirmed with his colleagues before saying, "There was no record of a malfunction of the relevant system when we received the 747, and Boeing has not issued any relevant notice recently. Brother, how did you know this?"
"No?" Xu Cang sighed. Boeing really didn't pay any attention to this question. He just said casually, "Just asking."
The maintenance man was not the kind of person who was persistent. He did not ask any more questions, but just looked at Xu Cang with a little curiosity: "But you actually know about the S2 switch and the L-shaped fixer!"
Xu Cang smiled and said, "I just took a look at the manual. Not many people in our company know about the 747, so the flight department asked me to follow Mr. Lu."
"So you're a theoretical expert!" The maintenance man was about to say something, but suddenly turned his head and looked into the distance, only to see a huge aircraft leaving the runway.
Xu Cang also glanced towards the runway. Although it was completely dark, the landing lights and strobe lights of the plane were quite easy to distinguish.
"Oh, the plane has landed." There was no time to chat anymore, and the maintenance staff immediately started asking their colleagues to get ready. The passenger elevators and shuttle buses were ready to go.
Finally, Lu Jinghua reminded the maintenance staff: "Brother, this surprise inspection is a secret visit, so you don't need to report it to the department."
The maintenance man laughed and said, "It's not an inspection by the bureau. Why should we report our own internal inspection?"
Lu Jinghua was relieved: "Brother, then you go and get busy."
Now Lu Jinghua really had the maintenance staff under control. Xu Cang secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Lu Jinghua had managed everything. It was good to have a small leader by your side. If he were to say those words, the maintenance staff might think he was a psycho.
Of course, no matter how successful Lu Jinghua was, he still had to be careful, after all, he was doing something "sneaky". Based on the principle of being cautious, the two of them waited until the maintenance staff had finished the external inspection and boarded the plane, and there was no one on the tarmac before they began the inspection.
"Hurry up, who knows when they will come down?" Lu Jinghua stood on the apron in front of the front cargo hold, holding up his mobile phone to record the video, and part of his attention was also focused on whether there were people getting off the plane on the opposite side.
"It's okay, it will be quick!" Xu Cang coughed lightly. He stood in front of the hatch and said to Lu Jinghua's mobile phone camera: "I will now manually close the front cargo hatch. According to the working principle of the S2 main control system, the power will be cut off after the hatch is closed..."
Xu Cang was explaining what , because this video file was going to be sent to Boeing headquarters.
As he spoke, he pointed to a square cover next to the hatch, which was the controller for the S2 switch.
"When the hatch is closed, the S2 switch should be powered off, so it would be useless for me to operate the S2 switch..." As he spoke, Xu Cang walked to the front of the S2 switch controller panel, opened the cover, and said before manually operating the S2 switch: "I'm turning on the S2 switch now!"
As Xu Cang turned on the S2 switch, at Xu Cang's signal, Lu Jinghua's mobile phone camera turned to the closed front cargo door.
After waiting for a while, there was no movement at the hatch. Lu Jinghua felt a little unsure: "Xu Cang, isn't this still closed? It hasn't been opened yet!"
"Don't talk, be quiet!" Xu Cang raised his hand to stop Lu Jinghua from speaking. He put his ear close to the gap under the cabin door, as if he was carefully distinguishing something.
Xu Cang waited like this for about two minutes without moving a single step. All he could hear was the whistling sound of the wind. The scene seemed a little weird.
Lu Jinghua felt strange and anxious. He held his cell phone in his hand while paying attention to whether the maintenance staff had come down. He cursed in his heart that he was the general manager of the flight department but ended up being treated like a thief.
Just when Lu Jinghua was losing his patience, Xu Cang's eyes suddenly flashed with a gleam of light: "There's movement!"
Lu Jinghua was stunned: "What's going on?"
Before Lu Jinghua could figure out the situation, Xu Cang directly opened the handle on the cabin door and opened it manually.
"What are you doing? Why did you open it manually?" Lu Jinghua asked in surprise.
After opening the hatch, Xu Cang was looking for something on the hatch. Suddenly, his eyes were fixed and his face instantly darkened. He waved to Lu Jinghua: "Come and see!"
"What's wrong?" Lu Jinghua walked over puzzledly, but he still did not forget his duty and was still recording.
When he walked to Xu Cang, Xu Cang pointed to the L-shaped fixator and said, "Look at this fixator!"
"What?" Lu Jinghua took a closer look and his face turned pale. He saw that the L-shaped fixture, which was supposed to be intact, had obviously deformed and twisted: "Xu Cang, you didn't say that doing this test would damage the L-shaped fixture!"
Xu Cang was about to say something when he was hit by a beam of strong light, and both of them closed their eyes at the same time.
When the two gradually got used to the light, they realized that it was the maintenance man holding a flashlight who had come down to them. Lu Jinghua secretly said that it was not good. He was distracted for a moment and did not notice the maintenance man coming down.
The maintenance man looked at Lu Jinghua and the other man blankly: "Boss Lu, what on earth are you doing?"
…
The next morning, in the office of the Vice President of Maintenance.
Boom!
A dull sound echoed in the office. Yu Fengtian, the vice president of maintenance, looked at the twisted and deformed L-shaped fastener on the table with a grim face. Not far away from him were Xu Cang and Lu Jinghua who lowered their heads and remained silent.
Letting out a long breath, Yu Fengtian tried to calm himself down a little, otherwise he might take action.
"Tell me, what are you thinking about?" Yu Fengtian had a gloomy face, and his eyes seemed as if he wanted to cut Xu Cang and Lu Jinghua into pieces.
"Mr. Yu, we think there is some problem with the cabin door locking system of this plane, so we went to... verify it." Lu Jinghua explained with a smile.
Yu Fengtian was almost laughing out of anger: "Then the L-shaped fastener was verified to be broken, is that what you mean? So what did you find out?"
"The L-shaped fastener is broken, so there is a problem." Xu Cang raised his head with a calm expression: "According to the working principle of the S2 switch, after I manually close the hatch, the S2 main control locking system will be powered off, so my control of the S2 switch controller should be invalid. But in fact, after I manually opened the S2 switch, the C-shaped door latch still worked, which means that the S2 switch system was not powered off after the hatch was closed, and the L-shaped fastener was deformed to prevent the C-shaped door latch from rotating."
"Did you do this on purpose?" Yu Fengtian pointed at Xu Cang with a dark face, "Is it because of the incident in 1566 that you did this?"
Xu Cang's expression remained unchanged: "Whether it's 1566 or 4724, I'm not attacking without purpose. Regarding the issue of 1566, Mr. Yu, I can accept your approach of considering the interests of the company. But the problem with 4724 is even bigger, and there is clear experimental evidence to prove that it should be grounded."
In fact, after submitting the proposal for 1566 to Yu Fengtian, Xu Cang paid attention to the operation of 1566 for a period of time. After that, 1566 did not stop flying, which means that Yu Fengtian completely ignored Xu Cang's suggestions for 1566. However, Xu Cang did not contact Yu Fengtian again.
But this time it’s different!
Although the 1566 aircraft did not undergo a D inspection, it was carefully checked by the company's maintenance staff and no problems were found. Logically speaking, black swans do occur occasionally.
The most crucial thing is that Xu Cang has no memory of any air crash caused by similar failures, so Xu Cang is willing to compromise on this issue.
But plane 4724 is completely different. The verification just now has perfectly proved Xu Cang's worries, and the crash of flight 7811 is still fresh in people's memory. If we don't care, who knows what kind of tragic accident will happen?
"Our company spent so much money to lease this 747 from Muhuashi to fly internationally. Now it's stopped. Are you okay?" Yu Fengtian asked Xu Cang, "You keep saying it's the plane's fault, but it's obviously your reckless operation. Is there anything in the manual that tells you to do this?"
"Boss Yu!" Xu Cang's expression turned serious. "We are testing on the ground this time. There is no pressure difference between the inside and outside of the cabin, so only the L-shaped fastener is deformed. However, at high altitudes, the cabin door will open abnormally due to the pressure difference, and then there will be a big problem."
"What does your test mean? Who would manually open the S2 switch controller at high altitude?"
Xu Cang said anxiously: "The age of the 4724 aircraft is more than fifteen years. The internal wiring is aging and worn. If there is a short circuit, it is very likely to cause the electric motor of S2 to start."
Yu Fengtian's face was gloomy. "All this is based on your conjecture. Short circuit? Why do you think that a short circuit will cause the S2 main control motor to start abnormally?"
"Thirteen years ago, a United Airlines 747 took off from Heathrow Airport and experienced a decompression at an altitude of 20,000 feet. Afterwards, one of the cargo doors of the aircraft was found to be cracked, and the L-shaped fasteners were all twisted and damaged... Mr. Yu, not only is the S2 switch defective, but even the strength of the L-shaped fasteners is questionable. This plane can no longer fly..."
"Shut up!" Yu Fengtian suddenly shouted, "If there is a problem with the S2 switch or the L-type fixture, why didn't Boeing issue a related notice? Don't pretend that you know everything. I will report this matter to the flight department. Just wait! And you..."
Yu Fengtian pointed at Lu Jinghua and said, "If you think the position of general manager of the flight department is for you to do whatever you want, you can get off. Someone wants to sit there."
At the end, Yu Fengtian no longer wanted to see Xu Cang and Lu Jinghua, and shouted, "Get lost!"
Xu Cang wanted to say something, but was forcibly pulled out by Lu Jinghua.
After leaving the office, Lu Jinghua patted Xu Cang on the shoulder and comforted him, "He regards Boeing's words as the golden rule. Boeing didn't even say there was a problem with the S2 switch and the L-shaped fixture. It would be strange if you could convince him with just your words. However, if you are talking about related safety issues that have occurred before, then why haven't the aircraft been modified in all these years?"
Xu Cang narrowed his eyes: "So it's time to remind Boeing!"
As he spoke, Xu Cang took out his cell phone and dialed Li Rongcheng's number that he had saved earlier.
Soon the call was connected, and Xu Cang said into the phone: "It's me, Xu Cang! If it's convenient, can we meet?"
…
Not long after, in a coffee shop on the central commercial street of Jianchuan City, Li Rongcheng was holding a mobile phone, which was playing a video. The content was exactly what Lu Jinghua had filmed last night.
After looking at it for a while, Li Rongcheng's brows gradually frowned, and finally he put down his phone: "I'm sorry, although I am the head of the region, I am mainly responsible for administration, and I am not very proficient in technology..."
Opposite him, Xu Cang said expressionlessly: "Then go find a professional to take a look."
"Of course. I will send this video to the technical department at headquarters for evaluation."
Xu Cang hummed: "That's troublesome!"
After saying that, Xu Cang prepared to get up and leave.
"Wait a moment, Mr. Xu!" Li Rongcheng hurriedly tried to persuade him to stay: "This is the first time we meet alone, we can still talk about other things."
Xu Cang frowned: "What can we talk about?"
If he hadn't sent the video to Boeing headquarters through Li Rongcheng, he wouldn't have bothered to look for Li Rongcheng. When Lu Jinghua took him to see Li Rongcheng before, Xu Cang felt that Li Rongcheng seemed to have something to ask of him.
If it were someone else, wouldn't they be overjoyed if the regional director of Boeing asked for something from him? But Xu Cang had no interest at all.
"Mr. Xu, you don't need to be so wary of me. I am thinking about Mr. Xu's premise." Li Rongcheng tried to be as kind as possible: "Although Blue Sky Airlines is a good airline, it would only be a waste of time for a talent like Mr. Xu to stay here. Why don't you follow me to Boeing headquarters to apply for the position of chief technology officer? Boeing headquarters is the place where Mr. Xu can display his talents!"
Xu Cang rolled his eyes and thought to himself that it was just as he expected. It was just a pity that Li Rongcheng's wish would not be fulfilled.
"I'm sorry, I'm not interested in going to Boeing headquarters." Xu Cang stood up, straightened his clothes, and nodded slightly to Li Rongcheng: "Mr. Li, I'm sorry to bother you with the video. This matter is not only my business, but also to eliminate hidden dangers for Boeing. I think Mr. Li should do his best, right?"
Seeing Xu Cang was about to leave, Li Rongcheng was anxious. He also stood up quickly and said, "Mr. Xu, Boeing has a history of nearly a hundred years. How can a company with such a rich history not attract Mr. Xu?"
Xu Cang sneered, stopped talking, and pulled out a chair to leave.
Li Rongcheng was even more anxious. In the eyes of any pilot, the Boeing headquarters was like a holy place, but Xu Cang treated it like a worn-out shoe. He really couldn't understand it.
Just as Xu Cang was about to leave, Li Rongcheng said anxiously, "Mr. Xu, please give me a condition. What would it take for me to go to Boeing headquarters with me?"
"I don't..." Xu Cang was about to say that he had no interest in asking for a price, but for some reason, Chen Jinwu's old face suddenly appeared in his mind. He pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "If you can get a complete set of drawings for the 737NG, I can consider it!"