Chapter 274 Sacrifice and sanctification!
It can only be said that Xu Cang's method of entering the water during an emergency landing was indeed extremely precise. Even under the impact of the air flow, Xu Cang actually had some difficulty in visually seeing the outside world, but ANA Flight 45 still entered the water in a relatively good posture.
In fact, the posture of entering the water for forced landing is very particular. If it is too small, the plane will be on the water or the nose will enter the water first, then the fuselage will rush into the water directly without floating at all, and it will eventually become a coffin in the water. But if the posture of entering the water is too big, the fuselage will break into two sections in an instant under the impact of the water flow, which is also a dead end.
Therefore, no matter when, forced landing on water is a technical action that requires extremely sophisticated techniques and can be regarded as the epitome of landing art.
However, the windshield problem that Xu Cang had worried about before was indeed quite fatal.
After the plane enters the water, the pilot needs to gradually increase the plane's attitude. After the initial entry into the water, the speed of the plane has gradually decreased, and gently increasing the attitude will not cause structural problems. The ultimate effect is to lift the nose of the plane out of the water and sink the tail into the water.
This posture can keep the aircraft afloat for the longest time. If the fuselage is well sealed, it can even take 20 minutes for the aircraft to sink completely. Of course, all this is theoretical. If the aircraft really makes an emergency landing on the water, no one can guarantee how long it will take to sink into the water, including Boeing engineers.
On land, a fully loaded aircraft is even required to be evacuated within 90 seconds. However, considering the difficulty of evacuation on water, this time can be extended to 10 minutes. Of course, this time is one of the criteria used by the authorities to determine whether the evacuation has met the standards.
However, whether this means that there is ten minutes of evacuation time every time depends on God's will.
Before entering the water, Xu Cang closed all the outflow valves in manual mode to ensure the tightness of the aircraft fuselage. At least in terms of procedures, Xu Cang did everything a pilot could do. Logically speaking, given that the procedures were taken into account, Xu Cang's posture when entering the water was already quite perfect. This was definitely a very good forced landing, and the time for the aircraft to float should not be too hasty, even considering that the cockpit windshield was broken, and the aircraft's tightness had a huge defect.
However, the problem occurred after entering the water.
As soon as the plane hit the water, even if the nose of the plane was tilted upward, most of the splashing water could not enter the cockpit. However, the height of the splashing water caused by the behemoth weighing tens of tons rushing into the water exceeded 25 meters, and the amount of water was really astonishing. Even if only a small amount of water entered the cockpit due to the tilting nose, the impact it brought was extremely huge.
The first wave of impact alone filled half of the cockpit with water. Under the impact of the water flow, Xu Cang was no longer affected by the air flow, but the negative impact it brought was even worse than the impact of the air flow. Xu Cang could no longer see the situation outside.
He could only rely on his own feelings to determine the amount of increase to be made to the aircraft's attitude.
In fact, if it was under normal circumstances, Xu Cang could completely rely on his body senses to make judgments. Xu Cang's senses were so strong, otherwise he would not have survived the 747S2 switch incident. But why did Xu Cang still rely so much on instruments when flying an airplane?
Because under abnormal circumstances, people's physical senses will be illusions.
This is caused by human physiological structure and cannot be avoided by Xu Cang through certain exercises or technical methods.
Just like the situation after entering the water!
In a normal landing, the speed of the aircraft is reduced at a relatively gentle and even rate. At least for Xu Cang, this is within the normal range of physical sensation. But after the forced landing on the water, the lower part of the aircraft is actually immersed in the water. The blocking effect of water is extremely exaggerated compared to air, and the aircraft will slow down at a terrifying speed.
In a greatly decelerated environment, the pilot, who has no visual or instrument reference, will have the illusion that the nose of the plane is pitching up, relying solely on physical sensation. In fact, if Xu Cang's body was not impacted by the huge water flow, he might be able to realize the existence of this problem.
However, due to the injury on his palm, Xu Cang was already at the end of his strength. After entering the water, the rushing seawater not only made Xu Cang unable to see, but even unable to breathe.
In that situation of suffocating in water and unable to sense the outside world, an ordinary person would have been terrified beyond words. How could he have spared the energy to fly the plane?
If Xu Cang were an ordinary person, he would have given up control of the plane out of panic and fear. Due to the influence of water resistance and tail torque, the nose of the plane would instantly dive down, and then the entire plane would rush into the water. Of course, if he pulled the stick back without thinking of the consequences, the result would be that the fuselage could not withstand the impact of the sudden increase in water and would disintegrate.
Before this, Xu Cang hesitated for a moment, because he was afraid of this. He could not guarantee that he could maintain sufficient rationality to accurately control the plane in such a terrifying and desperate moment. However, Xu Cang was not an ordinary person. After breaking through that layer of window paper, his thoughts seemed to be sublimated at this moment, so that he seemed to transcend the basic emotions of human beings. At a moment when he should have been infinitely afraid, he was thinking as coldly as winter.
However, even though Xu Cang was trying hard to overcome various negative emotions such as fear, he was still more or less affected. For example, at the beginning of the experience, Xu Cang thought that the nose of the plane was diving because the plane was decelerating too quickly.
This is the most typical somatosensory illusion.
At first, Xu Cang was deceived by an illusion, so for a moment, he wanted to slightly increase the input of the lever. But in fact, the attitude of the aircraft was already very large at that time. If the pitch attitude was increased rashly, the fuselage strength of the aircraft might not be able to hold up.
In fact, the basic operating principle of the aircraft comes from Bernoulli's principle, and its scope of application is fluid. Note that it is fluid, not just gas. Gas is a fluid, and water is also a fluid, so even if the elevator has sunk into the water, in fact, the control of the elevator can still produce a rudder effect.
As long as there is rudder effect, Xu Cang cannot relax any control input, especially at this extremely critical moment.
Xu Cang is different from ordinary people in that he may make mistakes, but he can wake up from his mistakes in time. This was the case when he was afraid of making an emergency landing on the water before, and it is also the case now when he is deceived by the illusion of physical sensation.
After the initial momentary misjudgment, Xu Cang only moved the steering wheel slightly. However, the intuition rooted in his soul, the genius that helped him survive countless dangerous situations, suddenly emerged.
Almost in an instant, hesitating on the edge of life and death, Xu Cang had already stepped half a step into the realm of death, and fell with hundreds of lives on the plane. But the sudden flash of inspiration made Xu Cang seem to see his own actions clearly and see what was ahead.
"Wrong!?"
In the endless darkness and isolation of the senses, Xu Cang was able to separate his mind and clearly see everything around him.
The illusion of diving down is created by the aircraft slowing down due to water flow obstruction!
That’s right!
Xu Cang grasped the reason for his horror in his intuition and retracted the step that was about to lead to death.
His reaction was so fast that he took action the moment the thought came to his mind. His right hand paused for a moment, and then he pulled it back with a gentler movement. At this moment, the seawater had submerged Xu Cang's lower limbs. He could feel that the speed of the plane was getting slower and slower. Soon, the plane would stop, and then it would be the decisive moment of evacuation that would determine the lives of hundreds of people.
Xu Cang had done it perfectly, and his genius had been demonstrated and verified, but he could not stop the seawater from seeping into the cockpit through the gap in the cockpit door. The cockpit door was not tightly closed, and there was a gap between it and the floor. Under the huge water pressure, more and more seawater would seep into the cabin from here, greatly reducing the time the plane floated.
However, this is no longer something Xu Cang can decide.
In a short while, the water in the cockpit had already flooded Xu Cang's lower limbs, and the water level continued to rise. The hole formed by the broken windshield was too large, and water could enter without hindrance. Even in the large posture, the water splashing in was huge.
In the moment when he thought about it, Xu Cang's arm had already sunk into the water, but he could feel that the speed of the plane was very slow and it was very close to stopping completely.
"Remember, no matter what, do not open the cockpit door." Just as the water level continued to rise, Xu Cang gave his last instruction.
The captain lowered his head at this moment. When the sea water rushed out, he couldn't open his eyes. Even his hearing was affected. However, he still received Xu Cang's instructions and imprinted them firmly in his mind.
This is his responsibility as a pilot and he must remember it!
The resistance of water is very large, and the large attitude will increase the resistance. However, after a few seconds, the plane has completely stopped on the water.
When the plane stopped, the cockpit was supposed to issue an evacuation order. However, the cockpit was already mostly flooded, and Xu Cang was already submerged in water from the chest down. In this case, the communication panel on the plane's central control console could not be used, and the evacuation order could not be issued.
However, Xu Cang had already communicated with the crew before this, and once the plane stopped, the crew would organize the evacuation on their own.
Due to the pressurization requirements of the aircraft, the sealing of the entire aircraft fuselage is quite good. In fact, the rear half of the aircraft fuselage is completely submerged in water, but there is no obvious flooding in the rear half of the cabin.
"All flight attendants, proceed to the emergency exits and organize the evacuation!" The first-class flight attendant issued the evacuation order on behalf of the chief purser.
She had originally used the passenger broadcast, but the aircraft's electronic compartment was probably soaked in seawater, affecting the intercom system. Even though the cabin was not flooded, the passenger broadcast system was not usable at all. In desperation, the first-class cabin attendant could only shout at the back.
Fortunately, when making the emergency landing at Narita Airport, Xu Cang specifically asked the first-class cabin attendant to communicate with other crew members in advance, including the evacuation procedures on land and water.
It has to be said that there is a huge difference between a prepared evacuation and an unprepared one. At least after checking the procedures in advance, the less experienced flight attendants in the rear cabin did not show any signs of panic, and performed their duties with relatively appropriate emotional responses.
Perhaps it was because the flooding in the rear cabin was not particularly serious, which was undoubtedly a good sign. It showed that the aircraft was well sealed, and accordingly, they should have more time to evacuate.
In any case, evacuation by water is much more difficult than evacuation by land, and if there is great time pressure, their operations and procedures may not be as smooth as they are now under time pressure.
According to the previous plan, the two wing emergency exits were opened at this moment, and all personnel were supposed to go out through the wing emergency exits. After some operation, the flight attendants in charge of the two emergency exits directly pulled out the emergency operating handles of the hatches, and the two wing hatches directly detached from the fuselage and fell into the water.
As the name suggests, the overwing exit is the cabin door facing the wing. According to the normal evacuation process, many passengers who came out early can stand on the wing first, and then jump onto the life raft more calmly. The difficulty of evacuation is different with or without a foothold.
It was also the first time for these two flight attendants to operate the emergency handles of the over-wing exits in an actual flight. Fortunately, there were no problems during the first actual operation.
Then, other crew members immediately brought the life raft over.
The life raft is deflated when placed on the luggage rack, but it has an automatic inflation device inside. After a while, it will be lifted out, automatically inflated, and thrown into the water to form a life raft that can accommodate a large number of people.
The flight attendant who carried the life raft over first went out of the overwing exit, stood on the wing and began to operate the inflation device of the life raft.
The crew was relieved that the passengers did not behave too impulsively at this time. If they rushed out without thinking, they might push the people standing on the wing down, which would be quite dangerous.
Perhaps influenced by the relatively calm atmosphere of the people around them, the flight attendants guarding the overwing exits also gradually calmed down. But suddenly, one of the flight attendants felt something and looked down. The floor, which had not been flooded just now, was now covered with a large amount of water, and the flight attendant's instep was submerged.
"This..." The flight attendant was stunned at first, and then his face changed drastically.
It's too fast. How come so much water has entered the rear cabin in such a short time? It shouldn't be so fast.
"The rear cabin is flooded!" The flight attendant could no longer do anything at this point and shouted loudly towards the front cabin so that the first-class flight attendant in front would be informed of the current situation.
At this moment, the first-class cabin attendant was about to support the weak purser, but the noise from behind made him stop, and when he looked up, he saw that the rear of the tilted fuselage was already a vast expanse of water, the deepest part of which was as deep as his calves.
"This shouldn't happen. This shouldn't happen. How could it happen so quickly?"
Although this first-class cabin attendant did not perform well during the hijacking by Kuroda Takashi, she performed well afterwards. Moreover, as the highest-ranking cabin attendant at the moment, she knew the normal speed at which a plane would sink after entering the water.
Although forced landings on water are rare, there are definitely precedents in the history of civil aviation. As a learning case for forced landings on water, flight attendants must carefully study these water evacuation materials during each refresher training.
Of course, Boeing itself was not confident about how long the plane could float on the water, but without obvious damage to the fuselage, it was impossible for water to enter so quickly. It hadn't even been two minutes, and the rear cabin was already flooded. If they waited any longer, not many people on the plane would be able to evacuate.
In this situation, the first-class cabin attendant was really at a loss. This was too weird and did not conform to common sense at all.
This is not a land evacuation, and the life rafts have not been fully inflated. If the passengers are forced to evacuate, there will be heavy casualties. This is not a swimming pool with a depth of more than one meter, but Tokyo Bay!
It’s no wonder that the first-class flight attendant panicked. Even if the chief flight attendant was awake at this moment, she wouldn’t know how to deal with the current situation.
In panic, the first-class flight attendant temporarily abandoned the chief flight attendant and ran to the front cabin workroom, knocking on the cockpit door: "Captain, water is entering the rear cabin too quickly..."
When a problem arises that they cannot understand, the flight attendants' instinctive reaction is to find the captain. This is basically a conditioned reflex.
However, before the first-class flight attendant finished speaking, she felt a chill on her feet. She looked down and found that seawater was leaking from the gap under the cockpit door. At that moment, the first-class flight attendant turned pale. She suddenly realized that the windshield of the cockpit was broken. If there was water ingress, it would be in the cockpit faster, even though the nose of the plane was upturned.
Judging from the speed at which water is leaking out from the door, the water accumulation in the cockpit is probably extremely dangerous at this moment.
That means no one actually knows whether the people in the cockpit are alive or dead.
What made her feel uneasy was that her cry just now did not receive a response, which obviously foreshadowed something very bad.
Turning back, the first-class cabin attendant was just greeted by the pale face of the co-pilot. It was obvious that the co-pilot had also thought of the same terrible possibility.
At this moment, as the highest-ranking flight attendant on the plane, the co-pilot suppressed his uneasiness and anxiety and shouted loudly to the rear cabin: "Maintain order and wait for the life raft to be opened before evacuating..."
Before the order came down, a passenger near the left wing exit could no longer stand the increasingly severe flooding. In just a moment, the deepest water had reached his knees. He ignored the co-pilot's order, pushed aside the flight attendant , and rushed out.
"I can swim, I can walk on my own!"
However, because he was too flustered, he fell directly on the smooth surface of the wing as soon as he went out, and fell into the water along the root of the wing.
This man could indeed swim a little, but as soon as he fell into the water, he felt a suction force pulling him down, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not get his head completely out of the water.
When a giant object sinks, suction is formed around it, dragging the surrounding objects down with it. Under this effect, even if you know how to swim, it is not very useful, which is why the first-class cabin attendants did not dare to force passengers to evacuate the cabin.
If this is the case for those who can swim, then those who can't swim will sink to the bottom, right?
The flight attendant who was originally deploying the life raft on the wing was already in a panic. At this moment, another person fell into the water next to her and could not climb out. The situation was very dangerous. She could not just stand by and watch the person die, so she had to abandon the life raft and go to pull out the passenger who fell into the water first.
For a moment, the cries for help and screams of the passengers who fell into the water spread throughout most of the cabin, causing the passengers who were still ready to rush out to temporarily give up the idea of forcing their way out. However, the first-class cabin attendants knew that these were temporary. At this rate of water inflow, it would only take more than two minutes for the water in the cabin to reach the thighs. At that time, rationality could not control the body, and chaos in the cabin was foreseeable.
If the evacuation falls into chaos, the casualties will be extremely tragic.
In the cockpit, almost half of the cabin was flooded with water as soon as the plane stopped. The captain and Xu Cang could only look up, with only a small part of their heads exposed to breathe. The situation was extremely critical.
"Go! Go through the side window!" Xu Cang was breathing with difficulty in the little space left.
In fact, the cockpit door can be opened. If Xu Cang holds his breath and opens the cockpit door, the water will definitely rush into the cabin, which will undoubtedly transfer the danger to the cabin. As a pilot, Xu Cang absolutely cannot do this.
Therefore, at the moment before stopping, Xu Cang specifically said that the cockpit door should not be opened.
Since I couldn't leave through the door, I could only leave through the side windows. The left and right side windows in the cockpit originally functioned as emergency exits.
The captain had obviously made this plan beforehand. Relying on his extremely familiarity with the cockpit structure, he groped with his left hand and immediately found the handle of the side window switch. With a little force, the left side window was opened.
"It's open!" The captain was overjoyed and turned to Xu Cang with difficulty: "Go through the right side window!"
Under normal circumstances, the captain should be the last one to leave. However, the cabin door could not be opened, and the captain and Xu Cang could not wait to die inside, so they could only evacuate on their own.
"Okay!" Xu Cang was actually groping for the right side window handle. However, because his left hand was in the water, the wound touched the salt water, and he felt a piercing pain, which made Xu Cang almost lose consciousness. As a result, his right hand groped for several times but failed to touch the side window handle.
Suddenly, Xu Cang's right hand stopped abruptly. He touched a cylindrical object with a triangular protrusion. He was immediately delighted, thinking that this should be the handle of the right window.
At this moment, the captain was already half out of the plane, and Xu Cang was about to open the right side window. But at this moment, a woman's voice was faintly heard outside the door.
"Captain, water is entering the rear cabin too quickly..."
Xu Cang heard this. He shuddered, and immediately looked up at the boost panel as if he had thought of something. With just this one glance, Xu Cang felt a chill all over his body. Before entering the water, Xu Cang had already turned the boost mode selector to the manual position and manually closed all the outflow valves.
But for some reason, the outflow valve display indicated that all the valves were open again.
If he had heard correctly, the woman's voice was that of a first-class flight attendant, and she was really talking about the water inflowing too quickly in the rear cabin. Obviously, this did not make sense, and the only explanation was that the outflow valve was really open.
The outflow valve is a means used by the pressurization system to control the cabin pressurization. It is essentially a hole with a valve. If it is not closed, seawater will flow into the cabin through these valve holes. In this way, the plane is like a ship full of holes. It would be strange if water did not enter quickly.
Xu Cang's left hand had lost sensation at this time. Helplessly, he could only let go of the side window handle with his right hand and raise it up to manually close the outflow valve again.
The control switch of the outflow valve is a spring switch. After Xu Cang pushed it to the left, he had to keep pushing until the valve display indicated that the outflow valve was completely closed. Only then did Xu Cang release the switch. As long as the external force was removed, the switch would immediately return to the center.
Under normal circumstances, returning the switch to center will not cause the outflow valve to return to its original position; it should remain in the closed position.
However, as soon as Xu Canggang let go, the pointer on the valve display automatically turned to the open position for some reason.
As a result, Xu Cang's already pale face turned even paler.
There is a problem with the drive for the outflow valve.
Perhaps because of the seawater immersion, or perhaps because of some other reason, the working logic of the outflow valve drive device has obviously failed. In this case, it means that someone must always keep the outflow valve control switch in the left position, otherwise the outflow valve will open automatically.
If the outflow valve is opened, water will flood the cabin at an unimaginable speed, and the people behind will have no time to evacuate.
For some reason, at this moment, Xu Cang suddenly recalled the scene of the car accident before his rebirth. At that time, he was trying to save people and was hit by the exploding chemical transport truck next to him and died.
This moment is just like that moment.
Xu Cang has experienced a lot of time after his rebirth. The 747S2 switch incident made him realize that blind kindness would only lead to more harm. During his time in Shan Airlines, a group of meritorious pilots forced him to give up his title, which made him realize that it was necessary to use thundering means against some people.
He could feel himself changing, both in his personality and in the way he dealt with people.
In his previous life, Xu Cang was so talented and had always been in a technical position, so he was a bit naive and simple in character. However, the things he experienced after his rebirth have profoundly changed Xu Cang.
He thought he had changed, but when he was at a crossroads of choice, he did not think of other scenes, but instead thought of the same moment of choice in his previous life.
At this time, the captain had already left the plane through the side window, and then climbed up to the nose with difficulty. He was shocked to find that half of the plane was completely submerged in water, and even the trailing edge of the wing was close to the water surface.
"Why is it sinking so fast?" The captain calculated the time in his mind. It was only a short time and the plane was almost to the bottom. This was not normal at all.
The crew on the wing had just finished inflating the life raft and threw it into the water, which meant that the evacuation had just begun.
Moreover, the evacuation speed on water is slower than on land. The large wings are slippery and even standing is difficult, so the evacuation speed cannot be increased at all.
Suddenly, the captain seemed to have thought of something. He looked down suddenly and discovered through the broken windshield that Xu Cang was still in the cockpit.
At this moment, Xu Cang raised his head, like a drowning man struggling in his death throes. He raised his right hand and pointed a finger at the outflow valve control switch on the boost panel, without moving.
"What are you doing? Come out!" the captain shouted into the cockpit.
Xu Cang's face was as pale as the first snow in winter, and his lips had lost their redness and were even slightly purple. However, under such circumstances, Xu Cang suddenly smiled: "The outflow valve controller is broken, I have to keep it in the closed position, otherwise the people in the cabin cannot evacuate."
The captain's body was shocked. He looked up suddenly at the rear of the fuselage where he could only see a slight vertical tail, and immediately understood what Xu Cang meant.
"Then I'll go down and you come up. This should be my job and my responsibility."
The captain was about to jump back into the cockpit through the broken windshield, but at this moment, Xu Cang's voice rang out: "No, I can't leave. My body is almost unconscious, I won't leave!"
Before, Xu Cang had been under the erosion of the biting cold wind since the windshield broke, and he was already on the verge of hypothermia. Now wrapped in the cold sea water, he was about to freeze. Although his right hand was turning the control switch of the outflow valve, Xu Cang could not feel it anymore, and he could only maintain this posture.
Even if Xu Cang wanted to leave at this moment, he couldn't find the handle of the side window because he had no sense of touch at all. He couldn't even leave through the open left side window.
If Xu Cang had not cared about the first-class flight attendant and had not thought about rescuing the people in the cabin, but had just opened the right side window regardless, he would have been next to the captain at this time.
"Xu Cang, Xu Cang!" the captain shouted at the top of his lungs. He knew Xu Cang was right. If he went down now, they would both die. But the indescribable and unimaginable sadness almost completely broke the captain's heart. After a moment, the sea water finally submerged Xu Cang's face.
Under the rippling water surface, Xu Cang's face appeared distorted and increasingly distant. He always maintained the posture of closing the outflow valve, as if time had frozen, like an immortal monument.
Because Xu Cang closed the outflow valve, the water ingress into the cabin was greatly slowed down. The cavity in the cabin caused the buoyancy to increase, while the nose of the cockpit had no buoyancy at all because it was completely filled with water, so the aircraft began to gradually turn from nose up to nose down and tail up.
Originally, the captain was standing above the water, but in a moment, the water surface had reached the top of his feet.
However, the captain's heart seemed to be cut by something, and Xu Cang's figure slowly disappeared in the continuous sinking.
"Mr. Xu Cang, it is my supreme honor to work with you!"
As the captain's hoarse roar gradually faded away, Xu Cang only felt that the light in front of his eyes was flickering slightly, and then gradually dimmed and dimmed.
Xu Cang knew what this meant, but he did not regret it.
"It turns out that I haven't changed at all. That's great!" At the last moment of his life, Xu Cang suddenly felt a little happy. He made the same choice as in his previous life.
Originally, Xu Cang believed that rebirth was the greatest mercy God had bestowed upon him, but now he knew that it was the greatest cruelty. He still had too many attachments to the world, and he couldn't let go of too much.
It is said that people cannot become saints while they are alive, because living people always make mistakes, but after death, time will select and eliminate the bad ones, and only the most beautiful things will be left, and then they will become taller and more majestic.
And it seems that becoming a saint is his eternal destiny!
As the last ray of light disappeared , Xu Cang's consciousness seemed to be swallowed by an endless dark beast. His thoughts and consciousness were stagnant at this moment, and he could not feel space or time.
Everything is nothingness, everything is just an illusion!
I don’t know how long it had been, but before the little light that symbolized life and soul went out, Xu Cang suddenly seemed to feel something, and a hint of warmth appeared in the cold and empty sea water.
Xu Cang's brain was no longer able to think, but his biological instinct made his right hand move slightly, as if he wanted to grab the warmth. But this warmth seemed to be close at hand, yet seemed to be far away.
Just when Xu Cang thought that this was just the last illusion of his life passing away, his body was hugged tightly, as if pushing away the coldness of death and embracing the hottest thing in the world.
Then, a breath of life was passed into Xu Cang's mouth, and Xu Cang suddenly regained some consciousness. Suddenly, what came into his eyes was Xia Shuyue's beautiful face.
