In the control tower of Jakarta Airport, a controller is verifying information from relevant airport departments to determine whether the airport can accept another 747 aircraft for an alternate landing.
Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta Airport was built 15 years ago, but because there are two other old airports nearby, the passenger flow is not very large. This has led to the airport not being properly expanded despite the slow growth in passenger flow.
By now, the international airport has begun to show signs of congestion, otherwise it would not have taken so long to review the 747's temporary diversion request.
After receiving the return request from British Airways Flight 1009 under area control, the tower controller first needed to confirm with the apron whether there was a suitable parking space for the 747, and also check his own schedule.
Most flights, whether they are operating normally or making an alternate landing, need to notify the controller in advance, which involves the handover of control. Because the control position is highly planned, it is fine if it is during a leisure time, but if it is during an extremely busy period, a plane that suddenly comes in and needs additional control is simply a disaster for the controller.
Therefore, after confirming that the apron can provide relevant parking spaces, the tower controller will make arrangements in advance based on the take-off and landing plans they have obtained to see if they can find an extra landing slot.
Although British Airways 1009 had declared a state of emergency and many things needed to be prioritized, the controller could not be asked to accept deployment tasks that exceeded his or her objective capabilities.
What’s more terrible is that the model of the return flight is 747. If it was 737, there might not be so many problems.
First of all, airplanes have wake turbulence, and roughly speaking, the wake turbulence of an airplane is directly related to the total weight of the airplane. Therefore, the wake turbulence of a heavy airplane like a 747 will be extremely strong. Such a degree of wake turbulence will cause great trouble to subsequent airplanes, and in serious cases, it may even cause unexpected safety problems.
Therefore, the control interval for heavy aircraft needs to be much larger than that for other passenger aircraft. Of course, according to the requirements of the air traffic control bureaus of various countries, the radar control interval will be appropriately different. However, it is undeniable that the interval requirement for the 747 is much larger than that for the 737. In most cases, except for heavy aircraft, the wake turbulence interval of the same type of aircraft is about two minutes, and if it is following a heavy aircraft, it has to be increased to three minutes, which is an extra regular interval out of thin air.
For a crowded airport like Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta, where the airport capacity is no longer enough to meet the actual number of flights, the terminal area is already quite busy, and it is not easy for controllers to create a gap for heavy aircraft.
Fortunately, there were not many take-offs and landings during this period. The tower controller made some adjustments and then sent the adjusted schedule to the director of the control room. After confirming that there were no problems, the information of British Airways 1009 was passed down to the ground, apron and ground service departments so that they could prepare in advance.
After arranging everything, the tower controller planned to call the regional control room to indicate that British Airways 1009 could be received.
At this moment, my colleague, another tower controller, said through headphones: "Garuda 6711, calm wind on the ground, runway 27 is clear for landing."
The tower controller glanced at his colleague's radar screen and saw that the Garuda Indonesia plane was less than four nautical miles away from the runway. The control interval was really small.
"Runway 27 is clear for landing, Garuda 6711." The crew quickly replied, but then asked again: "Tower, please confirm the cloud base height at this airport."
"OVC020, Garuda 6711!"
OVC020 means a sky full of clouds at 2,000 feet. There is basically no problem with this cloud base height because the cloud base height requirement for most Category I blind landings is only 200 feet.
"According to the height-to-distance ratio of this aircraft, it should be out of the clouds now. Can we see the runway?" the tower controller muttered casually. Although my colleague was wearing headphones, the quality of these headphones was not very good. If the volume was slightly increased, it could almost achieve the effect of external speakers. As long as you get close, you can roughly hear the sound in the headphones.
The Garuda plane was now less than four nautical miles away from the runway, and the final descent angle of Runway 27 was the most standard three-degree glide path angle. So as long as the plane was strictly on the glide path, the plane's altitude should have been more than one thousand feet, which was below the clouds at the time.
After saying that, he patted the colleague who had just commanded the Garuda Airlines plane and asked, "What's the phone number of the Jakarta regional control room? I don't know why I can't find the phone record here."
Just now, the Jakarta Regional Control Room called him. Logically, the call record should have been generated on the landline, so he could just call back. However, after searching for a while, he couldn't find any relevant records at all, which was a bit strange.
However, this is harmless. The domestic regional control room's phone number is usually recorded by their terminal control. Just like many pilots often keep some airport ground service, jet bridge, and even tower numbers in their mobile phone contacts.
It’s just that this controller is usually lazy and doesn’t take notes. Now he needs them, so he asks his colleagues for help.
"Maybe there are some broken clouds." The colleague laughed and started flipping through his little notebook.
In weather forecasts, clouds are divided into light clouds, sparse clouds, overcast clouds, full clouds, etc. However, sometimes there are small independent clouds that are not included in the calculation. It happens that the plane enters such a cloud, so the crew is puzzled as to why they can't see the runway even though they should be out of the clouds.
After searching for a while, my colleague finally found the number of the Jakarta regional control room and was about to report it to the tower controller. However, he accidentally glanced at his radar and was immediately stunned.
On the radar screen, the Garuda 6711 plane of Garuda Airlines had stopped descending in altitude, and within a moment's reaction time, it actually started climbing again.
My colleague put down his notebook and said subconsciously: "Go-around?"
"Hmm?" The tower controller also looked at his colleague's radar screen. At the same time, the crew's voice came from his colleague's headset: "Garuda 6711, go-around!"
When my colleague heard that it was really a go-around, he quickly pushed the notebook aside, got into work mode, and gave the command: "Garuda 6711, follow the standard go-around procedure, corrected sea pressure 9,000 feet, corrected sea pressure 1012."
"The standard go-around procedure corrects the sea pressure to 9,000, and the sea pressure to 1012!" the crew quickly repeated it.
"Garuda 6711, what's the reason for the go-around?"
This is what the tower controller must ask, because if there are some external factors, such as pentagonal airflow, wind shear, or encountering unidentified floating objects, this kind of information needs to be provided to subsequent aircraft or handled by the airport.
The crew of Garuda Airlines seemed quite comfortable with the situation and responded immediately: "The runway is not visible! Tower, is there something wrong with your ceilometer? We have not seen any visual signs until the decision height is 200 feet, and we can't even see the ground."
Normally, in low visibility conditions, pilots see the ground first, then the approach lights, and finally the runway. If you can't even see the ground, it's a big mistake.
"Oh, got it!" After the colleague replied, he and the tower controller next to him looked at each other in surprise.
The tower controller himself was confused: "That's not right! Even if there are some broken clouds, it shouldn't be so severe that we can't see the ground, right?"
The broken clouds that are not taken into consideration are usually very thin, and some of them allow you to vaguely see the situation below through the clouds even in the clouds.
However, if the broken clouds are so dense that they have greatly obscured the crew's vision, the ceilometer will not ignore it. If you can't see the ground conditions at 200 feet, it is already below marginal weather conditions.
The crew's visual estimate of the cloud base being less than 200 feet was quite different from the previously published estimate of 2,000 feet of cloud cover.
If there hadn't been a problem with the cloud height measuring instrument, the cloud base height at this field would now be lower than the Category I standard, and the airport would have to consider opening up Category II blind landing approaches. The implications are quite obvious.
Category II ILS is different from the general Category I standard. It not only has requirements for the aircraft itself, but also has special regulations for the qualifications of the crew. Not all flights can operate Category II. If you want to operate Category II, it is not only a matter of the airport, but you also need to contact the approach control desk in advance, and the process is quite complicated.
My colleague thought for a moment and said, "You have called the regional survey office, and then contact the site management to ask them to check if there is any problem with the cloud height measuring instrument."
The tower controller nodded, looked through the tower glass at the inky black outside world, and thought to himself: "I hope nothing happens!"
…
The cockpit of British Airways Flight 1009 was filled with an almost frozen atmosphere. Just now, while the captain was translating for Xu Cang, his mood went from confusion to shock and finally to being unable to control himself.
Xu Cang had never been in the cockpit before and knew nothing about the plane, but in just less than two minutes, he guessed the condition of the plane based on the changes in various switches.
No, this is not all gibberish, but it fits the facts perfectly.
Is this Xu Cang’s strength?
Xu Cang frowned: "Is there a problem?"
The captain let out a long sigh, suppressed his already chaotic heart, and then calmly looked at the co-pilot on his right.
The co-pilot's expression changed like magic since Xu Cang started describing the plane's problems. Finally, he turned his head and met the captain's indifferent eyes.
The two looked at each other, and it seemed as if the air was frozen, and then there was an awkward and ugly atmosphere.
In the end, the co-pilot was completely unable to resist the captain's silent suppression. He could only look at Xu Cang and start to unbuckle his seat belt, which meant he had compromised.
The captain breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the co-pilot finally didn't have to move. If the co-pilot refused to move, then he really didn't have any good solutions.
Just at this moment, there was a sound of footsteps coming down the stairs from the front cabin workroom. The chief flight attendant looked down the stairs and saw that it was the second captain who was resting on the second floor and came down after hearing the noise.
"Captain!" The chief flight attendant nodded slightly to the second captain.
As soon as the second captain came down to the workshop, he immediately noticed the open cockpit door and Leo standing at the cockpit door.
The second captain also received a special notice from the company headquarters, so he recognized Leo at first sight and greeted him politely. Then he looked at the chief flight attendant and asked casually, "Is there anyone coming out to use the bathroom?"
The second captain thought that the cockpit door was opened because someone in the crew wanted to go out to relieve themselves, which was a common reason.
"No!" The flight attendant had a strange expression on her face. She was a little confused about the situation.
"Huh?" The second captain became suspicious and walked to the cockpit door, where he found a young man who looked East Asian sitting in the right seat, while the original co-pilot had left his seat and was standing in the aisle.
The second captain's mind went blank for a moment, and he shouted into the cockpit: "What's going on? What are you doing?"
As he spoke, his eyes moved downward, and he felt terrible when he saw that the fuel control switch of the No. 4 engine had been disconnected.
Just now, he was awakened by the muffled explosion sound, so he cleaned up and went to check the situation, but found that the No. 4 engine was shut down directly.
The captain heard the noise outside the cabin door and looked back. He happened to meet the doubtful and questioning eyes of the second captain. Just as he was about to explain, he heard a commotion at the back of the cabin, and vaguely heard someone shouting in panic: "Fire, fire!"
"What?" Before the second captain had time to find out what happened in the cockpit, it seemed that a fire broke out in the cabin, which could be a fatal matter.
The second captain and the chief flight attendant looked at each other, and almost at the same time, they opened the curtain and ran to the back of the cabin. When they passed through the first class and business class and arrived at the economy class, the passengers in the three rows of seats on the left side of the front of the economy class had left their seats and stood on the aisle, as if something extremely terrible happened outside the window.
However, although some people wanted to stay away from the window, more people gathered around, and many of them stretched their necks to look out the window, hoping to see where the fire was.
When the flight attendant came over and saw so many people gathered together, he shouted, "Please return to your seats and don't gather together!"
As he spoke, he felt that under such circumstances, the flight attendant in charge of economy class had not come out to maintain order, and he immediately became angry and anxious.
However, unlike the chief flight attendant who was furious at the gathering of people, when the second pilot came over, one of the passengers who had left his seat earlier grabbed the second pilot's arm in fear and said, "Fire! The engine outside is on fire!"
The second captain left the man and went to the seat that man had left. He put one hand on the bulkhead, leaned close to the window and looked back, and immediately his whole body trembled.
I saw that the outer circle of the fairing of the No. 3 engine on the right was covered with dark blue flames, and the fire was so big that it almost covered most of the fairing.
"Holy... Saint Elmo's fire!" The second captain was knowledgeable and quickly realized that the flame was not caused by the real engine rising and falling, but an air ionization phenomenon.
He looked towards the wing again, only to find that even the navigation lights at the wingtips were no longer visible.
"Visibility is so low?" The second pilot thought to himself that it was not good and immediately left his seat, intending to return to the front cabin. However, the terrified passenger immediately grabbed the second pilot's arm and asked worriedly, "Captain, you are not going to do anything about the fire?"
The second captain was very anxious, but he couldn't be too rude to the passenger. He thought for a moment and smiled, "This is not a fire. This is a phenomenon similar to the aurora. Do you know what the aurora is?"
"Aurora?" The traveler should have heard of the Aurora, but the Aurora he knew was obviously inconsistent with the current situation, and the difference was quite big.
However, the second captain did not bother to continue explaining what the Aurora was. He took advantage of the passenger's distraction and ran towards the front cabin.
When he ran to the front cabin workshop, Xu Cang was already sitting in the right seat, the co-pilot was nowhere to be found, and Leo had already returned to the first class cabin.
The second captain passed Leo and headed straight for the cockpit. Leo had just sat down, and Song Xinyang, feeling nervous, had already asked Leo across a seat: "Mr. Leo, where is Xu Cang? Didn't he go with you?"
From the moment he heard the sound of the gas explosion to noticing the strange expression on Xu Cang's face, and then to Xu Cang and Leo rushing forward, Song Xinyang's worries grew.
Now, seeing Leo coming back alone, this worry has reached the point of overflowing.
"Xu Cang is dealing with some difficult matters in the cockpit." After Leo sat down, there was a hint of anxiety on his face.
"A difficult matter?" Song Xinyang thought to himself, "Oh no! Is this really a problem?" So he hurriedly asked, "What is it? Is it serious?"
Leo nodded: "It looks serious. Mr. Song, if you can land safely this time, Mr. Xu can be considered your half-lifesaver."
“Help…Help!?” Song Xinyang’s face turned pale. How could this involve his life? Is it really that difficult?
Suddenly, Song Xinyang heard a series of noisy noises. He looked back abruptly and along the corridor, he saw many passengers in business class and economy class leaning against the windows and looking out.
Song Xinyang became suspicious and looked towards the window closest to him. Outside the originally dark window, a cold blue light suddenly appeared, and the light flickered, as if the light source was still dancing not far away.
How can there be such a bright effect at an altitude of ten thousand meters?
Then, in Song Xinyang's extremely shocked eyes, he watched a blue flame spread directly out of the porthole. From the naked eye, it seemed that the entire fuselage was covered in fire, which was extremely horrifying and weird.
"St. Elmo's Fire?" Song Xinyang had been a pilot for a while before, so he made his first judgment: "How could there be such a strong St. Elmo's Fire?"
It was rare to encounter St. Elmo's Fire on an airplane, but it was not uncommon. He had encountered it in his short career as a pilot. However, as we all know, St. Elmo's Fire usually only occurs on the top of sharp objects, and the window he saw was on the rounded part of the fuselage. How could there be St. Elmo's Fire here?
Song Xinyang found it hard to imagine how exaggerated the electric charge was gathered outside the plane, causing the air around the fuselage to become ionized?
No matter from which angle, this is not a good sign!
"Did something really happen?" Song Xinyang felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave, and his heart sank to the bottom.
In front, the second co-pilot rushed into the cockpit and closed it. At this moment, Xu Cang's right hand was already on the steering wheel, and the captain actually let go of the control of the plane.
"What are you doing? Who is he?" The second captain stood behind and asked the responsible captain sternly, "What's wrong with the plane now?"
"He is Xu Cang, a pilot from CAAC, and he is very capable." The responsible captain quickly explained to the second captain in English: "It seems that the plane has accidentally entered volcanic ash. The No. 4 engine should have shut down due to surge after inhaling volcanic ash. The plane is in a critical condition, and we are ready to return!"
"Volcanic ash, as expected!" The second pilot had thought of the possibility of volcanic ash when he saw the fierce St. Elmo's Fire. However, like the previous responsible pilot, he thought that the company dispatcher should have reminded them of such a big thing, so he subconsciously did not believe it. As a result, when the responsible pilot said this, the second pilot still felt like he was hit hard.
"Engine No. 4 is surging, then..." The second captain muttered to himself. Suddenly, he saw Xu Cang's left hand touching the automatic ignition selector. His face suddenly changed: "What do you want to do?"
Xu Cang tilted his head and looked at the captain in charge: "I want to start in the air!"
Originally, Xu Cang wanted the responsible captain to translate his words to the second captain, but what Xu Cang didn't expect was that the second captain standing behind him suddenly said something in broken Chinese: "Air start, which one do you want to start, number four engine?"
The second captain's Chinese accent was too heavy, and it took Xu Cang some time to react before he realized he was speaking Chinese.
"Huh?" Xu Cang turned to look at the second captain in surprise: "You can speak Chinese too?"
At this time, the captain explained: "You must be wondering why I can speak Chinese. Because he and I both worked at NAU Airlines. A long time ago, when NAU Airlines first started to expand its international routes, it recruited a lot of foreign pilots due to route demand. We were in that situation. However, he didn't stay at NAU Airlines for long, while I stayed longer, for five years. After he returned to China, he no longer paid attention to CAAC affairs, but I kept in touch with my friends there, so I know you."
"So that's how it is!" Xu Cang suddenly realized, thinking that the responsible captain had worked in China before and knew him. No wonder he was so easy to talk to. If it was someone who didn't know him, like the second captain, it would take a lot of effort to gain their trust.
"Do you want to start the number four engine?" The second captain spoke directly in Chinese. Although he had a heavy accent, Xu Cang could still understand him. "The number four engine is shut down due to surge. Can you start it? Even if it is started, the source of the surge cannot be solved, and the plane will still surge!"
Xu Cang glanced at the automatic start switch, confirmed that it was in the off position, and then put his left hand on the automatic ignition selector and turned it directly to the BOTH position.
The second captain's face changed drastically, and he immediately bent down to interrupt Xu Cang's action. However, before his right hand could grab Xu Cang's wrist, he was intercepted in mid-air by the captain in charge.
The captain in charge said resolutely: "Tom, I am the captain in charge. I think it is more appropriate to let Xu Cang handle the current situation."
"You!" The second captain gritted his teeth, but he could not refute. His technical level was lower than that of the responsible captain, and his qualifications were much weaker, so he had to listen to the responsible captain. However, this did not mean that the second captain had no complaints in his heart. He just snorted and said coldly: "I hope you can say the same thing at the AAIB!"
AAIB, Air Accidents Investigation Branch, is the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch, which specializes in investigating major aviation accidents. Generally speaking, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CCA) will directly adopt the AAIB's investigation results. As they encountered volcanic ash, even if they could land safely, they would still have to go to the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch afterwards.
The responsible captain was stunned for a moment, obviously shocked by the reputation of the Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau, but he soon came to his senses and said firmly: "I will bear all the consequences!"
Since the captain in charge said so, the second captain glared at Xu Cang fiercely, spread his arms, and sat in the observer's seat himself.
Xu Cang felt relieved when he saw that the two captains had made a decision. The first officer was easy to deal with, but if the second captain couldn't figure it out and refused to hand over the control of the plane to Xu Cang, it would be a difficult matter.
But fortunately, the result is good.
The second captain crossed his arms and stared at Xu Cang coldly: "Does an air start really make sense?"
"That depends on whether the number four engine can start!"
After that, Xu Cang glanced at the display page of the engine data, and saw the words X-BLD, which indicated the cross-bleed. Then, Xu Cang directly pulled out the engine start switch, and when the N2 index exceeded the fuel supply indication, he put the fuel control switch in the RUN position.
After resetting the fuel control switch, Xu Cang immediately started timing, and then looked at the EGT of the No. 4 engine. Whether it could start well or not depended on whether the EGT could rise.
At this moment, a voice with a heavy accent suddenly came from the headset: "British Airways 1009, Jakarta Airport is willing to accept you, now you are flying to 090, altitude down 26,000 feet!"
The responsible captain quickly translated for Xu Cang. Xu Cang looked at the timer and replied directly to the responsible captain: "You can fly heading 090, do not descend, and maintain a leveling altitude of 30,000 feet. In addition, ask them to verify the information about the volcanic eruption with the Meteorological Bureau and say that we are very likely to have encountered volcanic ash."
The captain in charge informed the regional control in Jakarta of Xu Cang's words in English. After hearing what he said, the controller almost swore. He immediately agreed that British Airways Flight 1009 could maintain its altitude, and then hurried to the Meteorological Bureau for verification.
Just when the radio communication ended, the timer finally reached thirty seconds. Xu Cang glanced at EGT, and it was motionless!
Xu Cang cursed in his heart and had to check and cut off the fuel control switch again, then pressed the engine start button again.
"If there is really volcanic ash outside, we will not be able to start the aircraft successfully even if we try a hundred times," the second captain said coldly.
Xu Cang certainly knew that the source of the No. 4 engine's surging and flameout was the volcanic ash. If this source could not be resolved, how could it be possible to complete an air start, especially at an altitude of 30,000 feet, where the oxygen content was low and the success rate of an air start was already very low.
Xu Cang didn't hold out much hope in the first place, so he simply pulled the throttle to the limit, slightly reduced the landing attitude, and lowered the plane: "Let's go down to 30,000 feet first!"
If the No. 4 engine could not start, the plane could not maintain the current altitude at all. If it was forced to maintain it, the plane would definitely stall. There was no other choice. Even though he knew that the volcanic ash below was even thicker, Xu Cang still had to descend.
"Shall we do the 'Volcanic Ash' checklist?" asked the captain in charge.
Xu Cang nodded, and the captain quickly opened the checklist and started to work as a PM. As expected of a captain, he was very fast in flipping through the checklists, and found the Volcano Ash checklist in less than ten seconds.
This checklist is quite unpopular, and some pilots may never use it in their entire lives. However, Xu Cang could actually recite it from memory, but he didn't do so.
There is no urgency in making the "Volcano Ash" checklist, as it cannot change the current situation. What Xu Cang really needs to care about is the subsequent decision-making issues.
"Put on oxygen masks if necessary and establish crew communications." The captain has started reading the checklist.
Xu Cang hummed: "No need!"
"Autothrottle disconnect!"
"It's disconnected!"
"Push the handle and drive as slowly as possible!"
"Um!"
"Continuous ignition switch, turn on!" The captain said this and turned on the continuous ignition switch by himself to prevent the other working engines from stalling.
"Component control selector, all in place!"
At this point, Xu Cang whispered, "Just follow the checklist yourself, no need to ask for my opinion."
It is more than enough for a captain to do such a small task as making a checklist. There is no need to drag Xu Cang along, as this will distract Xu Cang's attention.
Of course, in a normal fault handling, any step should be cross-checked to prevent errors. However, this is obviously an abnormal fault, and Xu Cang needs to focus more on how to fly later, rather than on such a simple matter.
"Oh! OK!" The captain was easy to talk to. After that, he turned on the high-flow switch silently by himself, and at the same time set the pod anti-icing switch and wing anti-icing to the on position, so as to increase the bleed air discharge to increase the stall margin of the aircraft.
"The following content is that if the engine is turned off, the fuel control switch should be turned off and then on again. It is similar to the steps you just took to restart the engine. Why don't we repeat them?"
Xu Cang shook his head: "No need to try!"
In his eyes, the St. Elmo's fire that was originally floating on the tip of the windshield wiper has spread to most of the radar dome. This means that as the plane descends, the concentration of volcanic ash outside is getting higher and higher, and the charge accumulated by friction with the fuselage is still increasing, which is an extremely dangerous sign.
…
At this moment, at the control tower of Jakarta Airport, the tower controller who had previously contacted the regional control room and informed British Airways Flight 1009 that it could return, then notified the ground staff and asked them to inspect the airport's cloud height meter.
Soon, the venue management called back.
"You mean there's nothing wrong with the cloud height meter?" The tower controller glanced at his colleague while speaking: "Okay, thank you for your help."
After hanging up the phone, the tower controller's brows were locked into a frown. There was no problem with the cloud height measuring instrument, so what exactly went wrong?
Suddenly, his colleague looked out of the glass and said, "It's very dark tonight!?"
As far as the eye can see, outside the tower glass is inky darkness, as if it were to become substantial, and the light from the tower control room cannot penetrate out at all.
"The sky is full of clouds, blocking the light of the stars and the moon. Of course it's dark." The tower controller said casually.
"No!" The colleague pointed in a direction: "I mean now we can't even see the runway lights clearly."
"Huh?" The tower controller was startled and looked in the direction his colleague pointed. Sure enough, the runway lighting system that should have been clearly visible was only vaguely visible, and the field of vision was extremely limited.
The tower controller was stunned: "That's not right, is the visibility so low? The visibility should be more than 3,000 meters! This..."
As he was speaking, the tower controller suddenly felt a strange, pungent smell filling his nose: "What's that smell?"
Colleagues were puzzled: “What did you say?”
"I mean, do you smell anything strange?" The tower controller sniffed around and quickly locked on the source of the smell, which was a small ventilation vent facing him.
This vent is connected to the outside so that each control seat can get adequate ventilation.
Suddenly, the tower controller felt something and wiped his nose with his right index finger. When he took his finger away, a layer of light black substance was smeared on the tip of his index finger.
"This..." The tower controller and his colleagues were all stunned.
Soon, in this confused atmosphere, the telephone in front of the tower controller suddenly rang. The tower controller didn't care what was on his finger and hurried to answer the phone.
The call came from the local meteorological bureau, and soon the tower controller's face turned pale.
About two minutes later, the call was hung up. Seeing that the tower controller looked upset, my colleague immediately asked, "What's wrong?"
The tower controller seemed to have lost his soul, muttering: "The Kelud volcano has erupted! Volcanic ash is about to cover the entire airport!"
"Klud Volcano!" The colleague was startled. He looked down at the black substance on the controller's finger and immediately understood: "Is this the volcanic ash that floated over earlier? Some of the volcanic ash has already arrived at this airport. The reason why the Garuda plane couldn't see the runway was not because of the low clouds, but because of the volcanic ash?"
The tower controller put his hands in his hair in distress. " There will be even thicker volcanic ash coming soon. All flights must be suspended. The airport is no longer suitable for takeoffs and landings."
The colleague nodded in agreement: "Yes, I will report to the director. Please help me direct the Eagle Airlines plane, inform him of his situation, and let him make an emergency landing at another airport."
The colleague stood up and was about to go find his control room director when he suddenly thought of a question and looked at the tower controller in a daze: "That's not right! If this airport cannot operate, what about British Airways Flight 1009?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the tower controller was stunned on the spot.
…
In the cockpit, the plane quickly descended to an altitude of 30,000 feet at slow speed. Xu Cang didn't even need to look up the table, and quickly set the corresponding thrust and attitude.
Fortunately, at an altitude of 30,000 feet, the St. Elmo's Fire was indeed quite terrifying, but no other faults continued to occur. However, it was unknown how long this calm state could last.
Now all they can pray is to fly away from the volcanic ash area as soon as possible, otherwise there will be all kinds of problems.
"Xu Cang, I've been thinking about a question!" The captain pointed to the real-time wind direction and speed information on the navigation page with a serious expression: "The high-altitude wind is always roughly westerly, and the wind is very strong. If the volcanic ash is blown westward, isn't that the direction of the airport?"
Yes, the wind was blowing the volcanic ash toward the airport. They were now at 30,000 feet, and at low altitudes, the area of ​​volcanic ash might have expanded to an unimaginable extent.
If... the volcanic ash spreads to the sky above Jakarta Airport, if they go back now, can they still land on this field?
Hearing this, the second captain fell silent, and Xu Cang said nothing. He had discovered this problem a long time ago, but he didn't know how to solve it. After all, he couldn't affect the spread of volcanic ash.
As if to confirm the captain's words, the regional control soon came over the radio: "British Airways 1009, we have received the latest notification that Mount Kelud has erupted. Jakarta Airport is now covered in volcanic ash and cannot take off or land. You need to choose an alternate airport!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the three people's expressions suddenly changed.
And all this is not over yet. At the moment the radio communication ended, the voice of the devil's whisper sounded again.
Boom boom boom!
It seems like the most evil heart is beating!
Xu Cang's heart suddenly tightened. It was surging again. It was the sound of the second engine surging! Then, there was another different beating sound. It was the sound of the third engine surging!
"Not good!" Unexpectedly, the two engines started to have problems again in an instant. In this situation, can they still fly to another alternate landing field?
The world is so big, where can they find a place to stay?