Chapter 185: I am the one who saves you!
In the cockpit, as the captain cut off the fuel control switch, the aircraft's No. 4 engine quickly shut down, and the noisy sound of the surrounding engines also became quieter.
"Check the leveling altitude for an inoperative engine." The captain did not start descending immediately. Because of the unreliable airspeed, he could not descend using conventional methods. Just as ascending and cruising can only be controlled according to the attitude and thrust listed in the flight chart, if descent is required, the captain can only follow certain specific settings, which is reflected in the power setting, that is, stable at idle thrust, and the attitude needs to be recalculated according to the height and weight of the aircraft.
At idle thrust, as shown in the chart, the aircraft will have a descent rate of 2,500 feet per minute at an altitude above 35,000 feet. This is a rather exaggerated value, so the captain must first understand the maximum altitude he can maintain when one engine is not working, and promptly propose a new altitude requirement to the controller.
Although they have declared a state of emergency and obtained great priority, it does not mean that they are the only plane in the surrounding airspace. They can ignore the possibility of all air traffic conflicts and do whatever they want in the state of emergency.
"I know that, Captain!" The co-pilot said immediately, as if he had finally discovered his own value. He was finally a little excited, instead of his previous state of self-doubt.
The captain heard this and saw the co-pilot's excited look, thinking that he was not lying and that it had finally worked. So the captain immediately threw the checklist to the co-pilot and said, "Hurry up!"
The co-pilot nodded vigorously, took the checklist, and quickly flipped through it. His movements were completely different from the previous flight chart when he was looking for unreliable airspeeds. He was full of confidence.
It seems that I just happened to hit the only knowledge point that the co-pilot had.
It must be said that the co-pilot's performance was beyond the captain's expectations. After about 20 seconds, the co-pilot said "hmm", and the captain turned his head to take a look, and glanced at the title of the page the co-pilot opened, which was "Drifting down/leveling off altitude with one engine not working".
"It's okay, it's okay!" The captain just breathed a sigh of relief. The first-in-command's previous performance was really too outrageous. If he couldn't even find the leveling altitude when an engine was not working, wouldn't he have to be distracted and look for it himself in the end?
Just thinking about this possibility made the captain feel exhausted.
"Altitude 35,000 feet, total weight 750,000 pounds!" the co-pilot muttered, and soon found the corresponding data: "The maximum altitude can be maintained at 30,000 feet."
"Okay!" The captain did not verify what the co-pilot said. It was almost the same as the altitude of 29,000 feet he estimated, so he thought there should be no problem.
Since there is no problem in not having a target altitude of 29,000 feet, just set it to reach 29,000 feet according to the specified status.
However, even though everything seemed to be going smoothly, the captain still had some concerns in his heart. The most serious of these was the unidentified substance outside the plane.
Do these things exist at a certain altitude, or do they get denser as you go down? If the latter, do these things have any other effects on aircraft? Are these things the cause of the series of problems that have occurred on aircraft so far?
Just as the captain was momentarily distracted, he suddenly heard a loud noise outside. The co-pilot was startled, glanced at the cockpit door, and casually turned on the surveillance probe knob on the central console.
Soon, an image appeared on a small screen on the central console. It was a picture of the front cabin workroom presented from a side angle. In the picture, there were two men beside the chief flight attendant. They were Xu Cang and Leo who ran to the front cabin workroom.
Since the picture was in black and white, the co-pilot was able to distinguish the identity of one of the men after a little effort. He pointed at Leo on the monitor and asked the captain: "Isn't this the Airbus executive the company mentioned?"
That’s right, as the CFO of Airbus headquarters, Leo’s treatment was naturally different. Although he only contacted his friend at British Airways privately, his friend directly promoted him to VIP due to his status as a senior manager at Airbus headquarters, and notified the crew of the flight through the British Airways channel.
This treatment is indeed of a very high standard!
"But who is this person?" The co-pilot pointed to Xu Cang beside Leo. Obviously, he didn't know Xu Cang's identity. This is not surprising. As a member of EASA, which has the most mature civil aviation system in the world, it is normal for them not to care about the situation in the CAAC area.
Moreover, seeing that Leo and Xu Cang seemed to have some verbal conflicts with the chief steward, the co-pilot was even more puzzled. However, since he knew Leo's identity in advance, even though the co-pilot could feel that the atmosphere in the front cabin was not right, he still did not make any special expression.
However, compared to the co-pilot who knew nothing, this captain was different. He knew who Xu Cang was! That's right, this British Airways captain not only knew Xu Cang, but also knew what Xu Cang had done .
Although the cockpit door was very strong, its sound insulation was just so-so. At least in the cockpit, the captain and the co-pilot could hear Xu Cang's voice relatively clearly. However, because Xu Cang spoke in Chinese, the co-pilot didn't understand what Xu Cang was saying at all. However, the captain was different, he understood Chinese.
Although he didn't know why, he could feel that Xu Cang was very eager to get into the cockpit. Moreover, from what he heard from Xu Cang, Xu Cang seemed to have sensed something very scary.
"What's going on?" The captain was in a daze for a moment.
Xu Cang is very young, so young that he has little say in the civil aviation circle. But Xu Cang is different. He has handled many major flight accidents. From the perspective of aircraft technology alone, his ability cannot be inferred based on his age.
If there was something that could make Xu Cang feel scared, then he had reason to feel that way. He asked himself if he could do better than Xu Cang in the previous accidents that Xu Cang had encountered.
During the short period of delay of the captain, the co-pilot next to him saw that the pilot had not made any descent operation and couldn't help but become suspicious: "Captain, let's descend..."
Before he finished speaking, a faint blue light suddenly flashed in the corner of the co-pilot's eyes, like a ghost. The co-pilot's soul seemed to be hooked away, and he subconsciously looked towards the outside world in the direction of the nose of the plane.
Just after taking a look, I felt a chill all over my body, and saw a blue flame floating slowly at the tip of the wiper outside the nose of the plane.
The flame seemed to be born without roots, standing quietly on the tip of the wiper. Such a scene appearing at an altitude of ten thousand meters always gives people a weird feeling.
As the flames appeared out of nowhere, the captain's attention was finally drawn. He was stunned for a moment when he saw the flames, and then a word popped out: "Sant'Erasmo!"
The co-pilot was confused by the term. However, at this moment, the plane could not maintain a level cruising altitude of more than 35,000 feet under the power of three engines. Even if the captain did not operate the descent, the plane began to slowly nose down and reduce its attitude to enter a descending state.
After seeing the plane's reaction, the captain finally woke up from his trance. They were now short of power, so they had to descend even if they didn't want to.
So the captain immediately pushed the stick down slightly, with a very slight movement. If he didn't do this, the plane's speed would probably not be maintained.
However, the specific attitude to which the aircraft should be pushed depends on how it is marked on the flight chart.
"Turn to the flight chart with the unreliable airspeed in front, and then give me the checklist!" The captain said quickly, and then planned to put all the throttles back to slow down.
During a descent with an unreliable airspeed, the throttle defaults to slow-speed thrust, rather than the captain being willing to choose such a rough method of descent.
The co-pilot couldn't understand the flight chart with unreliable airspeed, but with previous experience, he figured it out quickly.
However, just as the co-pilot was about to flip back, he heard a heavy bang on the cockpit door, followed by a man's roar: "Don't f*cking descend, you're looking for death!"
When the captain heard this, his right hand, which was about to fully release the throttle, suddenly stopped in mid-air. The co-pilot next to him quickly turned around and looked towards the direction of the cockpit door, complaining, "What the hell are you doing up there?"
However, the co-pilot soon noticed that the captain's right hand moved straight back after a moment of inaction until it landed on the switch knob of the cockpit door locking system.
"Captain...Captain!?" Before the co-pilot could figure out what was going on, he saw the captain manually open the lock of the cockpit door!
The co-pilot's mind went blank. He never expected that the captain would open the cockpit door at this time.
However, as the cockpit door lock was opened, it was violently pulled open from the outside, and a young figure appeared in the eyes of the co-pilot, it was Xu Cang.
In Xu Cang's field of vision, the fuel control switch of the fourth engine was already in the disconnected state. This switch was somewhat similar to the engine starter handle on the 737, of course, it was only similar and not exactly the same.
Xu Cang was not worried that the crew would reduce the throttle completely. If they did, they could just add more throttle again. But if the fuel control switch was turned off, it meant that the engine had actually stalled, and if they wanted it to work, they had to reignite it.
However, in an environment surrounded by volcanic ash, the possibility of a successful air start was basically eliminated, so Xu Cang was extremely worried that the crew would shut down the engine.
"What did you say just now? We can't descend. Why can't we descend?" What Xu Cang didn't expect was that the captain sitting in the left seat actually spoke fairly fluent Chinese.
Xu Cang stepped into the cockpit. It would be . It was not that Xu Cang did not know English. He could understand English materials and books, but it was more difficult to ask him to express himself orally.
"Where do you think we are?" Xu Cang asked back. After entering the cockpit, he quickly scanned everything in the cockpit so that he could understand the situation as soon as possible.
At this moment, the male flight attendant who wanted to rush up and lock Xu Cang suddenly heard Xu Cang communicating with the captain in a language he could not understand. He was stunned on the spot and looked at the chief flight attendant, not knowing how to act.
Fortunately, the chief flight attendant was very smart. He immediately shook his head at the male flight attendant, signaling him not to touch Xu Cang. Then he pointed to the entrance of the workroom in the front cabin and asked him to guard the entrance while pulling the curtain.
The captain didn't quite understand what Xu Cang meant: "What exactly do you want to say?"
While the captain was talking, he saw Airbus CFO Leo following Xu Cang through the cabin door. He knew Leo, and it was for this reason that the captain was willing to give Xu Cang some extra patience at this critical moment.
"There was no St. Elmo's Fire just now, right?" In just a few words, Xu Cang had already understood the current situation of the plane: "Have you ever thought about what is below us?"
"St. Elmo's Fire?" The captain was startled, then his mind raced and he thought of a possibility: "Are you saying that these things outside are ice crystals? No, there is no lightning area observed outside now."
When an aircraft encounters severe ice crystals, it is indeed possible to cause St. Elmo's fire. This fire is not actually a real flame, but a cold light coronal discharge phenomenon, a relatively low temperature plasma.
In certain weather conditions, such as thunderstorms, the huge potential difference in the air directly exceeds the threshold of the air dielectric, thus breaking through the air and making it conductive. The St. Elmo's Fire is the strong light released during the process of air conductivity.
Since St. Elmo's Fire often occurs at sharp objects in thunderstorms, sailors in ancient times would occasionally observe this phenomenon at the top of the mast in thunderstorms.
St. Elmo was named after a 3rd century Italian saint who was said to be the patron saint of seafarers. Therefore, when seafarers saw this phenomenon, they thought it was the apparition of St. Elmo, so they called it St. Elmo's Fire.
The captain thought about it and realized that when he checked the weather information on the navigation page just now, there was indeed no sign of thunderstorms.
"Do you think that only in thunderstorms can enough charge be accumulated?" Xu Cang said coldly.
One of the conditions for the formation of St. Elmo's Fire is that the air is ionized, and the basic condition for this is that there is a large amount of electric charge in the air. Thunderstorms meet this condition, so St. Elmo's Fire often occurs in thunderstorms.
However, this does not mean that thunderstorms are the only condition for the formation of St. Elmo's Fire.
The captain was quite quick to react, and after Xu Cang's advice, a flash of inspiration suddenly occurred to his mind. He quickly turned on the landing lights again, and the unknown black substance flying past outside was no longer mysterious in his eyes.
"Fire...volcanic ash!" The captain uttered these words tremblingly.
It's volcanic ash!
Volcanic ash itself is indeed not charged, but it will accumulate a lot of charge under the intense friction with the fuselage. Therefore, once the aircraft mistakenly enters the area of volcanic ash, it is easy to form St. Elmo's fire on the protruding parts of the fuselage.
For example, the engine fairing and the position of the nose!
The co-pilot didn't understand Chinese, but from the captain's expression, he roughly knew that the young man who entered the cockpit seemed to have said something extraordinary.
The co-pilot couldn't help but wonder: "Captain, what's wrong?"
"No, no! How could it be volcanic ash? If the route would be covered by the volcanic ash area, the company dispatch would definitely inform us in advance." The captain said in disbelief.
Even though the bloody reality now showed the tragic result , the captain was still unwilling to believe it because it was too fantastic.
That's volcanic ash! They are now more than 10,000 meters above sea level, and they are still encountering volcanic ash, which means that the volcano that caused the eruption of such volcanic ash is a giant volcano.
The volcanic ash produced by a volcanic eruption of this scale will have a huge impact on aircraft. Could British Airways dispatch ignore such a serious matter?
"Instead of worrying about why your dispatcher overlooked such a big thing, I think you should think about whether the plane can land or not."
After these words were spoken, the captain was stunned for a moment, and then after thinking for a while, he felt a cold sweat running down his back.
There was a huge problem! There was a huge problem with his decision!
It is known that even in the case of a large-scale eruption of a giant volcano, it is rare for the volcanic ash to reach more than 10,000 meters. So, in the face of this fact, there is reason to infer that they are not actually in the volcanic ash mass, but on the upper edge of the volcanic ash mass, which means that they are very likely not actually in the volcanic ash mass, and the really thick volcanic ash is right below them.
In this case, the descent of the plane now is not for survival, but for completely entering the center of the volcanic ash, which is literally seeking death!
Xu Cang looked at the captain's distorted expression and said, "Got it? You should let the plane surge, then try to maintain altitude and return!"
"Then won't the engine be scrapped?" Leo suddenly said behind Xu Cang.
He is not a particularly professional, but he still knows some knowledge about aircraft, especially what engine surge means.
"That's the loss you have to accept in order to survive!" Xu Cang said coldly, "You should have kept the engine at high thrust and let it surge until it broke down! Now that you've cut off the engine, you've also extinguished your own chance of survival."
When the captain heard what Xu Cang said, he reviewed his thoughts again and immediately felt ashamed and guilty. He cut off the engine too rashly, which directly ruined a shortcut that could have allowed him to return home relatively easily.
You know, once you enter the volcanic ash area, it is basically impossible to restart the engine.
The captain turned to Xu Cang abruptly and looked at him with an extremely expectant look: "What should we do now?"
Xu Cang did not directly answer the captain's question, but pointed to the co-pilot: "If possible, can you ask him to move to another seat?"
The co-pilot was stunned. He didn't understand what Xu Cang and the captain were saying, but when he saw Xu Cang's actions, he felt that the conversation between the two seemed to involve him.
The captain hesitated, turned his gaze to the co-pilot, switched to English, and said, "You go sit in the first class cabin!"
"Huh?" The co-pilot obviously didn't understand the situation: "Captain, why should I go to the first class cabin?"
"Make room for him!" The captain pointed at Xu Cang and continued, "By the way, don't go to the first class cabin yet. Go to the second floor and call Tom over."
They had wanted to call the second captain over a long time ago, but a series of events interrupted them and they did not take action.
"Him!?" The co-pilot looked at Xu Cang in disbelief: "I don't even know who he is. Is he a pilot? Even if he is a pilot, how good can his flying skills be as an Asian? Captain, you are violating the company's regulations by doing this!"
A vein popped up on the captain's forehead: "He's very powerful, very powerful, get down quickly!"
"Captain, I can't hand over my position to someone with unknown origins!" This first officer was not very capable, but he had a bad temper. Perhaps from his heart, he didn't think Xu Cang was qualified to replace him. Or, to put it more accurately, as a European and American pilot who was born at the top of the civil aviation system, he had strong doubts about the quality of pilots in Asia, especially East Asia.
And it just so happens that Xu Cang's face is the most typical East Asian appearance!
The co-pilot glanced at Xu Cang with contempt: "He probably doesn't know what the plane is like right now, so why should we hand the plane over to him?"
Xu Cang actually understood this. He sneered and pointed directly at the captain: "I'm talking, you translate for him!"
The captain was startled: "What are you going to say?"
"Just translate it!" Xu Cang shouted, and turned to the co-pilot: "You said I don't know the condition of the aircraft? No, I know more than you! Your PFD airspeed is inconsistent with the backup instrument airspeed, and the overspeed warning keeps sounding, but you haven't taken any action to correct it. It's probably a false warning under unreliable airspeed. At this moment, the aircraft is still maintaining a level flight attitude and thrust setting under unreliable airspeed, three-degree attitude, 1.39 EPR, and now the altitude is close to 35,000 feet, so your current gross weight should be around 750,000 pounds."
"If one of the stabilizer cut-off switches is turned off, it means that the trim system has also failed, but it seems to be temporarily under control now. It may be because the stabilizer is out of control, or it may be because of unplanned stabilizer trim, but I tend to favor the latter. Because only the unplanned stabilizer trim checklist will require the cut-off switch of stabilizer 2 to be turned on for the second time."
"The CDU screens are all black, and the navigation screens are full of various fault flags. That means it's not a problem with the CDU itself, but a malfunction of the flight management computer. Are both flight management computers useless?"
"At the same time, the heating switch of the right windshield was turned off. Perhaps the windshield was overheated ! However, the probability of a windshield overheating for no reason is very small. Most of the time, it is caused by water seepage due to poor sealing, resulting in a short circuit of the wire. However, I see that there is no water leakage on the edge of your windshield. So the greater possibility is that the windshield is damaged! Of course, from a visual point of view, the damage is not serious, there should be only one crack. Moreover, judging from your expressions, you don’t seem that scared. It’s just the crack of the outer layer of the windshield!"
Xu Cang was talking, and the captain was translating. At the end, the captain's face was extremely interesting, and he finally blurted out: "Holy Shit!"
Xu Cang slowly looked at the co-pilot: "You know who I am! So, can you give me your seat now?"
