Chapter 370: Spring Airlines Crisis! The Largest-Scale Investigation in History!
"What do you mean? The vertical separation is at least only seventy feet?" In the CAAC director's office, Li Jie listened to the report from Li Lin, director of the Aviation Security Department, without much expression on his face.
Li Lin hummed, "That's right. The minimum vertical distance between the National Airlines plane and the Spring Airlines plane was only more than 70 feet. Fortunately, the worst result did not happen."
"Fortunately?" Li Jie sneered, "The minimum vertical separation between the two 737s is only more than 70 feet. This is indeed good luck. It can be said that we picked up two planes."
Li Lin could hear the rage hidden in Li Jie's words: "Director Li, this matter..."
"The ICAO inspection team is still here. What do they want to do by making such a big fuss for me?" Li Jie returned to his seat: "Where are the crew members of the flight involved?"
"According to Xianchi Control, the cause of the incident was that the Spring Airlines plane deviated from the scheduled altitude. The Spring Airlines crew on duty has been grounded. The Jianchuan Regulatory Bureau has already sent people there, and the Southwest Bureau will also send people. What about our General Administration?"
There is no problem with what Director Li Jie said. No matter whether it is the Spring Airlines plane or the Guoda Airlines plane, they were truly rescued. If they were not careful, the planes would have been destroyed and people would have died. There were two planes at that. It is really scary to think about it.
Although this incident did not lead to the worst possible outcome, it is definitely a sign of an extremely serious accident, especially now that the ICAO inspection team is here. Isn't this a slap in the face of CAAC?
"No need for now, let's see what the Southwest Bureau says." Li Jie said gloomily, "All crews of Guoda Airlines are also grounded and are under investigation."
"But... the crew of National Airlines did not..."
"We can only know whether there is any problem after investigation." Li Jie snorted: "The responsibility of the crew of Guoda Airlines is still uncertain, but the responsibility of Spring Airlines should be certain. The only difference is the size of the problem."
"I'm afraid that's not the case."
Li Jie frowned: "What do you mean?"
" According to feedback from Jianchuan Airport, someone was injured on the Spring Airlines plane."
"What?" Li Jie's face suddenly changed: "What's going on?"
No matter what the problem is, as long as it involves casualties, the nature of the matter changes.
After all, civil aviation is a service industry. Not only did they fail to provide appropriate services, but they also injured customers. That is a difficult situation to accept. In the civil aviation industry, whenever someone is injured, the penalty level is fixed.
"It seems that the crew's operation was a bit rough, causing the aircraft to briefly switch from overweight to weightlessness, and then..." Li Lin's face was not looking good. He was the director of the Aviation Safety Department, and his main responsibility was to deal with such safety incidents.
Technical issues are easy to deal with, but once it involves injuries, he will be under a lot of pressure.
"According to the news from the Jianchuan Airport Medical Department, a flight attendant was injured, and two other passengers were injured. One of the male passengers was seriously injured and is already receiving treatment." Li Lin frowned, "And, more importantly, the male passenger himself was in poor health, so the situation is more difficult."
Li Jie's heart tightened all of a sudden. Being injured was one thing, but death was another. But from Li Lin's tone, things didn't seem good.
"That's right... the male passenger suffers from a severe case of tuberculosis. His physical function was already very poor, and coupled with the back injury, his condition is quite critical." Li Lin added, "I have already told Jianchuan Airport to do their best to treat him."
Li Jie's heart skipped a beat: "Tuberculosis?"
In this era, tuberculosis is no longer as terrible as it was in ancient times. In ancient times, tuberculosis was called consumption and was difficult to cure. But nowadays, tuberculosis can be suppressed by using a large amount of antibiotics, and it is definitely not an incurable disease.
However, it is undeniable that tuberculosis can cause extremely serious damage to physical fitness. If he gets injured again, what if... Li Jie really doesn't dare to think about it.
Li Lin glanced at Li Jie who was eager to kill someone, and felt very nervous. He was worried that Li Jie would lose his temper on the spot and he would be implicated.
"It seems that there is no need to determine the situation of the Spring Airlines crew." Li Jie pointed at Li Lin and said, "Give them a half-year break first."
Li Lin could see that Li Jie was furious. Logically speaking, the timing of the Spring Airlines incident was very unfortunate. It happened to be during the ICAO inspection. Isn't this a blatant crime against the wind?
Li Lin opened his mouth but didn't say anything. Li Jie was probably still not satisfied and shook his finger: "Half a year is not enough, three years... No, lifelong grounding, we don't need such pilots."
Li Jie really looked like he was going crazy. At such a critical time, wasn't Spring Airlines holding them back? No, it wasn't holding them back, it was slapping CAAC in the face.
CAAC was humiliated in front of the chairman of the ICAO Technical Standards Committee, the chief engineers of FAA and EASA. If it is more serious, CAAC will lose the election for a class of directors, and Li Jie probably wants to dismantle Spring Airlines.
"Banned from flying for life?" Li Lin was shocked and said quickly, "Director Li, you can't do that. You can't do that."
"What's wrong?"
Li Lin had a strange expression on his face: "The co-pilot of the Spring Airlines crew in question was...Xu Cang!"
"Xu Cang?" Li Jie was stunned: "Shouldn't he be flying back today? How did he become the flight crew?"
"This... the situation is a little complicated." Li Lin coughed twice: "According to the response from Spring Airlines' operations control, the original co-pilot is about to expire, and Spring Airlines can't transfer a new co-pilot. Xu Cang happened to have his credentials with him, so he was temporarily asked to take over."
"A sudden arrest?" Li Jie thought for a moment: "It's understandable that he carries his ID with him, but what about his clothes? He wouldn't carry any clothes with him, right?"
Li Lin scratched his head: "No clothes, Xu Cang was flying in casual clothes."
"Flying in plain clothes?" Li Jie's face darkened. "He is lawless. He is really lawless."
To be honest, flying in plain clothes was definitely wrong, but it was not lawless because of this. The main reason was that this time was a warning sign, and Li Jie's anger was even worse, and Li Lin was a little scared beside him.
"Where are the others?"
"who?"
"Xu Cang!"
Li Lin coughed lightly a few times: "At the Jianchuan Regulatory Bureau."
"Take his license away from me. Don't leave it in the Southwest Bureau. Send it directly to the archives of the General Administration's Flying Standard Division and seal it up." Li Jie was so angry that his eyes were blazing with fire. "Let the kid come and get it himself."
"Director Li, Director Li, that's not the case." Li Lin hurried to put out the fire. "This time the captain on duty made a control error and violated the handling procedures for speeding in the air. He manually intervened and closed the throttle at an altitude of 34,000 feet. In the end, it was Xu Cang who saved the plane. If it weren't for Xu Cang, this would not be a symptom of an accident, but a real accident."
Li Jie's face lightened up a bit. He had never doubted Xu Cang on technical issues. However, the timing of the problem was too bad for CAAC. No matter what, this time he would definitely be severely punished. Moreover, Li Jie had certain expectations for Xu Cang, but Xu Cang's laxity in this incident made Li Jie feel very disappointed.
However, after hearing what Li Lin said, Li Jie did not mention the matter of confiscating Xu Cang's license.
However, this does not mean that the matter is over.
"What about the controller? Even if the Spring Airlines plane deviated from its altitude, the radar monitoring should have been able to issue an early warning."
"According to the report from Xianchi Control, the controller discovered the conflict immediately. However, the controller may have panicked and sent the wrong first command, thus losing the best time to avoid it."
"The instruction is wrong?" Li Jie asked, "What's wrong?"
"Instruct the Spring Airlines plane to turn right, but to the right of the Spring Airlines plane is a... restricted area!"
In fact, if the controller had given the correct instruction at the first time, and instructed the aircraft to turn left instead of right, it is very likely that nothing would have happened later, and the little time left would have been almost wasted because of this wrong instruction.
The controller also has an unshirkable responsibility in this incident.
Li Jie took a deep breath and said, "The director, deputy director, training director, safety supervision director, duty officer, and the air traffic controller of the Xianchi Air Traffic Control Area are all suspended for investigation."
Li Lin shuddered when he heard that. It was the first time that Li Jie got so angry that he basically criticized all the leaders of the Xianchi Air Traffic Control Bureau from top to bottom.
"I understand. I'll do it." Li Lin said in a low voice.
"In addition...if what you said was true, and it was Xu Cang who saved the crisis, then there's no need to confiscate his license, but he still needs to be investigated." Li Jie said coldly, "I'm not targeting Xu Cang, but we must investigate Spring Airlines thoroughly this time. A captain actually reduced the throttle to zero at an altitude of 34,000 feet. He was courting death."
Li Lin echoed in a low voice: "Director Li, the operating procedures of domestic pilots are still a little irregular..."
"If it's not standardized, then standardize it." Li Jie snorted coldly: "Send a call to the five regional management bureaus, and select 20 appointed representatives from each jurisdiction to check all the flight personnel of Spring Airlines in batches."
"Check everything?" Li Lin was stunned. It was the first time he heard of the order to check everything.
It is rare to screen all pilots at or above the captain level, but it does happen. However, it is the first time in the history of domestic civil aviation that all flight crews of an airline have been screened.
It was obvious that Li Jie was not joking or going through the motions this time. There were five major regional management bureaus, with a total of one hundred appointed representatives. This lineup was a bit too large.
"That's right, all flight personnel, including trainees." Li Jie said coldly: "Also, tell Xu Cang to respect himself. If he dares to interfere, the General Administration will set a hard minimum elimination target."
There are two types of inspections by the bureau : one without setting indicators and one with setting indicators. The former is enough as long as you pass, while the latter requires a certain minimum elimination rate, which is extremely cruel.
From this, it can be seen that Li Jie barely saved face for Xu Cang. If this order is passed down, the elimination target must be maintained at least 50%, then Spring Airlines will definitely have to ground half of its flight crews, which is too much pressure.
However, even if there is no minimum elimination rate, the pressure on Spring Airlines is still quite terrifying.
The technical requirements and standards for inspections by the authority are usually the highest. If everything is done according to the rules, Spring Airlines will probably be in great danger.
Li Lin moved his lips and asked quietly, "Director Li, if all staff are checked, the cycle will be very long."
"It's okay. It doesn't matter if the period is a little longer. We can just do it in batches. Anyway, all employees must be covered. This is the punishment that Spring Airlines must accept." Li Jie waved his hand: "Don't say anything. It's decided."
Li Lin knew that Li Jie had made up his mind. If he tried to persuade him, he would only cause trouble for himself. He sighed inwardly. If this happened, at least 30% of Spring Airlines flight crews would be grounded.
This is still the most conservative estimate!
"Spring Airlines won't collapse like this, right?" Li Lin thought to himself.
Just after leaving Li Jie's office, when the door opened, there stood FAA's chief engineer Jamie Harrison.
The two looked at each other, and Jamie Harrison smiled: "Director Li, I just heard that something dangerous happened?"
Li Lin didn't like the FAA chief engineer in the ICAO delegation, but he didn't want to be too sullen, so he said expressionlessly: "If there is a problem, we will naturally solve and deal with it."
"In fact, this unsafe incident is quite unfortunate, isn't it?" Jamie Harrison said with a smile, "It would be a pity if it affected the election of Class A directors."
At this time, Li Jie's indifferent voice came from the office: "CAAC will naturally handle this matter properly according to regulations."
Jamie Harrison waved his hand: "We certainly don't doubt the professionalism of CAAC. It's just that this is a coincidence. We want to get involved, for example, to observe possible simulator inspections."
Li Lin showed a hint of displeasure on his face: "This is an internal matter of our CAAC, you are not involved..."
Before Li Lin finished speaking, Li Jie's voice came out again: "Yes! During the inspection period, you can apply to observe the simulator inspection."
Since Li Jie said so, Li Lin could not raise any objections. It was not a good thing for the Director of the Navigation Safety Department to disagree with the Director in front of outsiders.
Jamie Harrison's smile grew even brighter. "Thank you, Chief Li, for your generosity."
At this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps came from a distance. Li Lin looked in the direction of the sound and found that it was the director's secretary running towards him.
The secretary ran over, nodded to Li Lin, and then hurried into the office.
After the secretary went in, Li Lin, who was standing at the door, pushed the office door open and closed it.
Of course Jamie Harrison noticed Li Lin's little action, but he didn't say anything, just smiled.
Li Lin was too lazy to pay attention to Jamie Harrison. He raised his eyelids and left silently.
Jamie Harrison looked through the crack in the door at Li Jie and the secretary who were facing each other in the office. After pondering for a moment, he followed Li Lin and left.
In the office, the secretary took a breath, but the expression on her face was extremely solemn: "Director, just now, the Jianchuan Airport Medical Department sent a message that the male passenger with the most serious injuries on Spring Summer Flight 9334 has been issued a critical illness notice."
