Chapter 404: The slap in the face came so quickly! A meteor hits Tokyo!
In the office of the JCAB director, Nagashima Kenshin was still anxiously waiting for the result. He didn't need to contact the Ministry of Transportation, but his rank was too low to contact Nagatacho without caring about anything. This would be a very rude behavior. He had to inform the head of the Ministry of Transportation first. If his superiors thought it was okay, he could contact Nagatacho.
However, Nagashima Kenzhi was under a lot of pressure and time was too tight. If the crew of WN3102 went crazy and forced their way into the airspace of Honshu Island, would the Air Self-Defense Force really shoot them down?
This will cause a huge amount of public opinion, especially since there is also the president of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association above him.
Nagashima Kenshin paced back and forth in the office. The secretary of the Minister of Transport said that he would reply as soon as possible, but for Nagashima Kenshin, this was like a year. Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye, and he had to contact the secretary of Nagatacho first, and then he could transfer the call after the message was passed on. No matter how he looked at it, it felt like there was not enough time.
Just when Nagashima Kenji was so anxious that sweat broke out on his forehead, the office door was pushed open and it was his secretary.
"Any news?" Changdao Jianzhi asked anxiously.
The secretary shook his head: "No, there is no news yet."
"Then why don't you go and urge the Ministry of Transport? What are you doing here?" Nagashima Jianzhi was a little agitated and his tone was extremely unfriendly.
However, the secretary did not leave, but looked a little strange: "There is no news from the Ministry of Transportation, but there was a call from Nagatacho."
"Nagatacho?" Nagashima Kenzhi was stunned: "Who is that?"
"Well, his secretary just called and asked us to confirm whether there was a person named Xu Cang on flight WN3102."
Changdao's eyebrows were twisted into a "川" shape: "He's also up there?"
Changdao Jianzhi was more concerned about Xu Cang, but he didn't monitor him 24 hours a day. At least he didn't know that Xu Cang was on flight WN3102.
"Why does this matter feel a little strange?" Nagashima Jianzhi became more and more confused: "Why does Nagatacho want to confirm Xu Cang's purpose?"
The secretary whispered, "According to what the person in Nagatacho meant, if Xu Cang is on the plane, they can be allowed to make an emergency landing at Tokyo Haneda under certain conditions."
"What do you mean by conditions?"
So the secretary relayed Nagatacho's request, which was that after entering Honshu airspace, WN3102 must follow a strict trajectory and altitude, and the flight data requirements can only be appropriately relaxed after reaching the Haneda Airport approach control area.
If a plane deviates from its altitude or trajectory while en route to Haneda Airport, it will be immediately diverted.
This requirement seems very demanding, but in fact, in the eyes of professionals, it is not a requirement at all. Civil aircraft should strictly adhere to trajectories and altitudes.
"So the guy from Nagatacho has given in?" Nagashima Kenshin found it hard to imagine that the guy from Nagatacho would give in to WN3102. If he were in his shoes, he would definitely not agree. Who can guarantee that Tokyo won't be the next New York?
The reason why Nagashima Kenshin was willing to ask Nagatacho's opinion was not because he really wanted to seek any special exemption for WN3102, but because of Richard Bayer's prestige. If the situation really developed to that point and had a huge negative impact, he could also say that he had asked for instructions and that it was the superiors who insisted and it had little to do with him, which seemed like an attempt to pass the buck.
But he really didn't expect that Nagatacho would actually agree.
The secretary mentioned Xu Cang just now, but Changdao Jianzhi did not think that Xu Cang personally had such great power.
Xu Cang is still in the rising stage and developing rapidly, but the time is still too short and the accumulation is still not enough. At least in terms of importance, Xu Cang is definitely not as good as Richard Bayer.
But the person from Nagatacho only asked about Xu Cang, but didn't mention Richard Bayer at all, which was a bit strange.
"What if Xu Cang is not on it?" Changdao Jianzhi asked again.
The secretary said with certainty, "Then follow the ban! However, Nagata-cho means that considering the impact of international public opinion, Fukuoka and Kagoshima airports on Kyushu can be opened to accommodate WN3102. Yakushima Airport is indeed too small for large passenger aircraft. However, the bottom line is Honshu Island. Aircraft that do not meet safety requirements are absolutely not allowed to enter Honshu airspace."
This change in policy made Nagashima Kenzhi feel relieved.
Previously, if there was any problem with an aircraft entering the country from the south, it could only land at Yakushima Airport. However, the runway at Yakushima Airport is only 1,500 meters, and the braking distance after landing for the most popular 737 and 320 is generally more than 2,000 meters. There is actually no difference between having Yakushima Airport as an option and not having it.
It is understandable that Japan has carried out air traffic control for safety reasons at a special time, but at least a suitable alternate landing site should be provided. The choice of Yakushima Airport was completely a decision made by non-professionals. If something really happened, there would be a lot of criticism afterwards.
However, if Fukuoka and Kagoshima airports are opened, it will be different. These two are secondary airports, and except for a few wide-body aircraft, mainstream passenger aircraft can be received. In this way, at least there will be no excuse for criticism, and JCAB's work will be easier to carry out.
Of course, from the secretary's words, it can be seen that the reason why Nagatacho was willing to make an exception was only because of Xu Cang, and had nothing to do with Richard Bayer. In the face of security needs, Richard Bayer was not an obstacle.
It is easy to check whether Xu Cang is on the plane, but Nagashima Kenzhi doesn't understand why Xu Cang can be the factor that makes Nagatacho change his mind.
"Did Nagatacho say why?"
The secretary's expression became increasingly strange: "I heard that the Elysee Palace contacted Nagatacho, and then Nagatacho changed his mind."
"Elysee Palace?" Nagashima Kenzhi's face changed drastically: "The French President..."
The Elysee Palace, like Nagatacho in Japan, is not a place name but a symbol of power.
"Elysee Palace, Elysee Palace..." Changdao Jianzhi was a little dazed. How could Xu Cang have the ability to ask the person in the Elysee Palace to mediate? He only heard Changdao Jianzhi muttering: "Xu Cang, who are you?"
…
At this moment, over Kyushu Island, WN3102 is conducting exploratory power and attitude experiments.
Prior to this, Fukuoka control allowed them to enter the airspace over Kyushu Island, but further instructions were required to enter the airspace of Honshu.
Richard Bayer was no longer reckless. He took things one step at a time. It would take some time to fly over Kyushu Island. During this time, he could try the correspondence between the No. 2 engine and the sidestick.
It is now known that the rudder and manual trim are usable. These two auxiliary devices can replace the aircraft's heading and altitude control in a small range. Of course, due to their own limitations, complete replacement is impossible. Perhaps Xu Cang can do it, but he is now lying unconscious.
Fukuoka Control did not make any requirements for the altitude and trajectory of WN3102, which allowed Xia Shuyue to try to move the thrust handles and side sticks by himself to find the appropriate correspondence.
Xia Shuyue is talented in manipulation. Although not as talented as her top-notch talents in memory and perception, she is still far beyond ordinary people.
In addition, it must be said that Xia Shuyue was also very lucky. She found the middle thrust lever position of the No. 2 engine in a very short time, and also found the corresponding position of the side stick with a positive attitude of two degrees.
Contrary to what many people expect, the attitude of an aircraft in level flight is not zero degrees, but between positive two degrees and positive three degrees. Therefore, the attitude of two degrees or three degrees is a very important value, which involves the reference point for the aircraft to correct and level off.
When Xia Shuyue tried to operate the side stick, he started by pushing the stick forward. As a result, when the side stick was pushed to the front, the posture was two degrees straight. It was too much of a coincidence.
After determining the sidestick position for level flight, if pushing and pulling the sidestick subsequently produces a large pitch change, return the attitude to positive two degrees, and there will be no major problems.
Previously, the pitch of the aircraft had actually been unstable because it was impossible to find a suitable sidestick position for a level flight attitude. This has now been solved.
However, Xia Shuyue still maintained a relatively pessimistic view on the problem of remembering all the corresponding relationships. This was really too difficult.
If you are just descending or ascending, you don't need to remember so many corresponding relationships. For the throttle, you only need to remember slow speed, full thrust and an intermediate value, which is about the last speed of sixty.
As for the posture, just memorize the zero degree posture, two degrees posture and ten degrees posture.
These six data can basically cope with cruise ascent or descent without special requirements, and can even use zero-degree attitude to slowly descend to the airport altitude to complete the approach.
So, the problem is never here, but during the final level off or go-around.
When leveling, under normal twin-engine working conditions, the attitude increases slowly from zero or one degree to about five degrees. This is a continuous process. At the same time, the throttle also decreases as the attitude increases, which is also a continuous change process.
The requirement for the change of thrust value in a go-around is not high, and full thrust is an acceptable setting. However, the key point of a go-around is the change of attitude, which needs to increase from zero or one degree to nearly fifteen degrees at a relatively fast rate.
Therefore, the main reason for memorizing the relationship between attitude and thrust so hard is for the brief moment of leveling and go-around. This time point accounts for a very small stage of the entire flight, but it is the most important and must be faced.
Although the road ahead is difficult, everything is moving in the preferred direction anyway.
At this moment, the Fukuoka controller who had said he was going to ask for instructions finally spoke again, and the first thing he said was, "WN3102, please confirm whether there is a passenger named Xu Cang on board."
Richard Bayer was visibly stunned, but still said, "Yes, what's wrong?"
"If it's convenient, can you let him send a message on the frequency?"
"If you want to confirm his identity, you can look it up from his ticket purchase information. Besides, it's not convenient for him to listen to you right now."
Fukuoka control was puzzled: "Why?"
Richard Baier sneered: "Because he is the passenger who was shot and is now unconscious."
"What?" The Fukuoka controller's voice was a little surprised, and he hurriedly said, "WN3102, after communication, we now have two options. JCAB has agreed to open Fukuoka and Kagoshima airports, and you can choose any one for alternate landing. In addition, you can also return to Tokyo Haneda, but there is a condition."
Richard Baier's tone flashed with a hint of caution: "What conditions?"
"After entering the airspace of Honshu Island, your flight path and altitude must strictly follow the control instructions until you reach the approach control area of Haneda Airport, which is approximately 18 nautical miles. If you have a premonition or there is a continuous deviation, you must leave the airspace of Honshu Island as quickly as possible."
For a large airport like Haneda Airport, the scope of the approach control area is actually much larger than 18 nautical miles. The approach control area is not planned as a cylindrical space from bottom to top, but an inverted pyramid shape that gradually expands as the height increases.
If WN3102 enters the approach control area of Haneda Airport at its current altitude, the radius of this area can reach more than 100 kilometers, covering the entire area of Tokyo. However, the Japanese Civil Aviation Authority will never allow WN3102 to deviate from the state over Tokyo without scruples.
Therefore, the approach control area of Haneda Airport provided by them was planned with a radius of 6,000 feet. Within the range of 18 nautical miles, it was gradually away from the bustling urban area of Tokyo. Even if some problems occurred, the damage caused would be greatly reduced.
Fukuoka Control added: "This is the final order after coordination. There is no possibility of deviation."
The implication is, stop bargaining.
Richard Bayer and Xia Shuyue looked at each other. They could feel the firmness in Fukuoka's control tone. It seemed that there was really no room for negotiation.
"Where are we going?" Richard Bayer asked Xia Shuyue, "If we have to strictly maintain the track and altitude, then we can't test the correspondence. We can only test it within the last 18 nautical miles. However, we can't wait indefinitely. We can wait, but Xu Cang can't wait either."
Now the correspondence between attitude and thrust value has not been completely clarified. The best way is to let WN3102 try it while flying to Tokyo Haneda, so as not to delay either.
However, Fukuoka control requires strict maintenance of flight path and altitude, so the plane cannot be moved randomly. It needs to wait until it is within 18 nautical miles of Haneda Airport. Only then can it start to try again.
However, this would greatly extend the landing time. How would Xu Cang be able to hold out?
"Do you think it's feasible to go to Fukuoka?"
The current situation is that we must carefully consider whether to insist on going to Tokyo. If it is Yakushima, then Xu Cang will definitely not be able to get adequate medical treatment. However, Fukuoka is different. Even if the overall level of Kyushu Island is inferior to that of Honshu Island, Fukuoka is at least one of the best cities in the Kyushu region, and the medical level may be able to keep up.
Richard Bayer shook his head. "Fukuoka Airport is too remote. It takes more than 20 minutes to drive to the city center. The airport hospital at Fukuoka Airport is not as good as the medical department at Tokyo Airport. We are now at the border of Kyushu and Honshu. The flight time to Fukuoka and Tokyo is almost the same. No matter where we go, it will not take more than 10 minutes. It is impossible to transfer other doctors from the city in such a short time."
"In fact, if we maintain our altitude and fly to Tokyo, the altitude will be extremely high. If we want to land, we will definitely have to circle over Haneda Airport to lower our altitude. During the descent, we can try to find the correspondence between attitude and thrust, but we will only have one chance to try." Richard Bayer looked at Xia Shuyue: "If you are confident that you can determine the correspondence in the last chance, then go to Tokyo. If you don't have confidence, then go to Fukuoka. If you go to Fukuoka, Xu Cang's life will be at risk, and in my opinion, the risk is not small."
To be honest, both options make sense, the question is how to choose.
Richard Bayer believed that he could not help in finding and remembering the correspondence, so the final decision had to be made by Xia Shuyue.
Just then, there was a thumping sound of footsteps outside the cockpit. The captain who had left earlier rushed in and said anxiously, "Let's go to Fukuoka, let's go to Fukuoka."
He clearly heard what Fukuoka Control said just now. The captain was extremely worried that Xia Shuyue would forcefully land without knowing the details in order to buy time for Xu Cang's treatment. Wasn't that playing with his own life?
If you go to Fukuoka, there are no restrictions on flight track and altitude, so you can try whatever you want. Isn't the chance of landing much higher than going to Tokyo?
He doesn't care whether Xu Cang lives or dies!
However, this sentence seemed to be the final word, making Xia Shuyue, who was originally hesitant, become firmer.
Her voice was not loud, but extremely firm: "Let's go to Tokyo!"
Richard Bayer just said that if Xu Cang went to Fukuoka, his life would be at great risk. However, from his tone, Xia Shuyue actually understood that Richard Bayer was being quite reserved.
Going to Fukuoka is equivalent to letting Xu Cang die!
Then going to Tokyo is the only option.
However, there is a serious problem involved.
"I just said that you have one more chance to verify it. What if that chance doesn't allow you to find the exact correspondence?" the captain said in surprise.
"Does it make a difference?" Xia Shuyue said coldly, "If Xu Cang dies, do you, as accomplices, still want to live? After entering the airspace above Haneda Airport, make one last verification attempt during the circling descent. No matter what the result is, you will land."
The captain's face turned pale: "You lunatic!"
Xia Shuyue looked at Richard Bayer: "This is my choice, Mr. Bayer, what about you?"
The deaths of those crew members were not a pity, but Richard Bayer was innocent and he needed to bear the same risk. Xia Shuyue could only apologize to him.
However, Richard Bayer didn't care: "Xu Cang saved me once when I was in Europe. I have no objection to your choice. Let's go to Tokyo!"
The captain's face turned pale immediately, but he didn't dare to do anything radical. Xia Shuyue was the only one who showed amazing memory and perception. If Xia Shuyue went crazy, he would have to bear it.
"Two lunatics!" the captain cursed and left the cockpit entrance.
"If you want to strictly maintain the altitude and track, you need to do some preparation work." Richard Baier said, "On the track, you can make fine adjustments with the rudder. However, for pitch, you can only rely on elevator trim. However, the main electric trim is unusable, and you can only use the manual trim wheel. However, the speed is too high now, and the air load on the elevator is too large. You can't turn the trim wheel, and you must reduce the speed first. Now we are not far from Tokyo, and reducing the speed will not have a big impact. It is estimated that the difference will only be one or two minutes."
Xia Shuyue pointed to the trim wheels on both sides of the console: "Is this it?"
"Yes." Richard Baier nodded and said, "Put the throttle back to slow speed and maintain a two-degree attitude at the same time. The speed of the aircraft will drop immediately. After doing all this, we will enter the airspace of Honshu Island."
After all, Richard Bayer is an experienced pilot, and he is much better than Xia Shuyue, a beginner, in many details.
Under the guidance of Richard Baier, Xia Shuyue quickly adjusted the status of the aircraft and then contacted Fukuoka Control: "WN3102, we apply to go to Tokyo."
"WN3102, received. Please strictly follow my control instructions below." Fukuoka controller commanded: "Maintain altitude at FL280, turn left ten degrees."
"There's something wrong with our heading table..."
"It's okay. Just turn left ten degrees based on your feeling. If there is any deviation later, I will make minor adjustments."
Richard Baier winked at Xia Shuyue, who nodded. Instead of using the sidestick to form a left turn, she stepped on the left rudder, forming a very small five-degree bank, and then slowly turned out.
Make a quick note of the number in your mind and adjust it to the same level when you feel it is about right.
However, this kind of thing that is completely based on feeling is of course impossible to be accurate. Sure enough, Fukuoka control soon said again: "Turn right two degrees."
Just make two or three fine adjustments to the left and right, and the aircraft can be controlled on the correct heading. However, considering the influence of wind, the control will contact the crew to make corrections to the drift in the next period of time.
After adjusting the heading and altitude of WN3102, Fukuoka Control issued an order allowing the aircraft to enter the airspace of Honshu, and required WN3102 to strictly maintain the correctness of the track, with the left and right deviations not exceeding one nautical mile.
For normal route accuracy, one nautical mile is an acceptable error range.
In addition, the controller will keep a close eye on the track of WN3102 and issue an immediate warning if there is any deviation.
In this way, WN3102 crossed the border between Kyushu and Honshu and flew towards Tokyo.
…
About eight minutes later, the plane entered the eighteen nautical miles of Haneda Airport. Thanks to the relatively stable air currents tonight, Xia Shuyue did not actually have to make too many adjustments and entered the approach control area relatively easily.
Five minutes ago, control was transferred from Fukuoka control to Tokyo control.
As Richard Baier had expected, as soon as the plane entered the range of eighteen nautical miles, Tokyo Control required WN3102 to conduct an autonomous circling descent, controlling the descent rate by itself, until it descended to an altitude of three thousand feet. The only requirement was that the aircraft must always remain within the range of eighteen nautical miles during the circling.
So, Xia Shuyue controlled the plane to fly a little further inside, then set the thrust to slow speed, and then began to try to test and verify the correspondence between the side stick angle and the aircraft attitude.
Since the aircraft was at too high an altitude, even if it descended at a rate of two thousand feet per minute, it would still take more than ten minutes. Moreover, in the process of testing the aircraft's attitude, the attitude might have to be increased from time to time, which would often reduce the aircraft's descent rate. In this way, it would take fifteen minutes just to descend to the landing altitude, which was too long.
Therefore, after confirming that he was not speeding, Xia Shuyue first lowered the landing gear, which would increase the descent rate and not waste too much time on circling descent.
They were running out of time, and Xia Shuyue could hardly hear Xu Cang's breathing, which was a very bad sign.
However, there was one thing that Xia Shuyue was always concerned about. When WN3102 took off from Tokyo, she vaguely heard that there was something a little abnormal in the sound of the No. 1 engine, but the sound was so slight that Xia Shuyue herself could not be sure.
A series of events happened afterwards and Xia Shuyue completely forgot about the incident, but she remembered it again during the circling descent.
There was no other reason. The creaking sound started again and became more and more obvious.
The confirmation of the corresponding relationship of the aircraft in rolling is relatively unimportant. Fortunately, the wind in Haneda tonight is very light, so there should be no need for large-scale rolling corrections, and only the rudder can be used. After trying several times, Xia Shuyue found the side stick position corresponding to a 30-degree bank.
The aircraft will descend in a circle at a thirty-degree slope.
However, as time went by, Xia Shuyue's inner anxiety grew rapidly, so much so that while verifying the pitch posture, she actually asked: "Mr. Bayer, did you hear any strange noises?"
"Strange sound?" Richard Bayer didn't quite understand what Xia Shuyue meant: "What kind of sound is it similar to?"
"It's like..." Xia Shuyue was still thinking about how to describe it to Richard Bayer, but suddenly, the plane was disturbed by the airflow and the slope increased a lot. The plane was originally at a slope of 30 degrees, and the increase made the slope very large, which startled Xia Shuyue a little.
This wouldn't have been a big problem, but Xia Shuyue's right hand was on the throttle.
Although both engines were at idle thrust, the throttle levers were in different positions. The throttle lever of engine 1 was about five or six degrees before the idle position, while the throttle lever of engine 2 was almost in the middle.
Most of Xia Shuyue's right hand was on the throttle lever of engine No. 1. Slightly frightened by the air flow disturbance, Xia Shuyue unconsciously moved the throttle lever of engine No. 2, and this time directly moved the throttle lever to the slow position.
However, the slow position of the throttle lever did not correspond to the slow thrust now. The No. 1 engine, which originally had a faint running sound, suddenly started to run like a raging fire, and the power increased instantly.
The slow position of the throttle lever of engine No. 1 corresponds to a large thrust value!
The moment the thrust of Engine No. 1 changed, Xia Shuyue reacted and immediately wanted to adjust the thrust of Engine No. 1 back.
However, before she could move, there was a loud bang, and a fan blade in the No. 1 engine broke directly, was thrown out, and immediately cut into the fuselage.
Then, the skin that was supposed to cover the casing actually cracked directly from the bottom. Under the impact of the airflow, the fragile skin was torn on the spot, revealing the core of the engine.
As the low-pressure fan broke, some of the debris entered the core engine. For the extremely precise engine core engine, the high-pressure turbine immediately got stuck after inhaling such hard solid matter. Part of the flame in the combustion chamber was released from the tail nozzle, and the other part flowed back to the intake duct, from which flames were continuously ejected.
Under the dark night sky, WN3102 was like a shooting star, crashing straight towards the ground.
Xia Shuyue had no idea about the broken blades of the No. 1 engine, but she could clearly feel the serious damage to the engine caused by this problem. The explosion-like impact spread directly to the entire fuselage, causing the originally stable aircraft to lose control on the spot.
Xia Shuyue's reaction was relatively quick. Relying on her memory, she first corrected the plane's bank angle and then planned to correct the plane's condition.
But suddenly, the cool airflow from the oxygen mask came to an abrupt stop, and the oxygen mask that originally symbolized life and survival directly became the scythe of the god of death.
Because the oxygen mask had a good seal, Xia Shuyue immediately felt a strong sense of suffocation after there was no oxygen supply. She tried desperately to take off the oxygen mask, but the mask's hose needed to be inflated first, and now the oxygen system seemed to be damaged and the hose could not be inflated. The mask was clasped tightly on Xia Shuyue's face like an octopus.
Under the impact of the extremely terrifying feeling of suffocation, Xia Shuyue accidentally touched the lower side stick with his left hand. The aircraft, which was originally at a zero-degree attitude, suddenly formed a negative two-degree attitude, and the aircraft dived down like a wild horse.
Fortunately, Richard Bayer, who was sitting in the back, was not wearing an oxygen mask. After discovering the problem, he immediately unbuckled his seat belt and wanted to help Xia Shuyue take off the oxygen mask.
However, Xia Shuyue was so frightened that she did not accept Richard Bayer's help, but shouted loudly: "Xu Cang, take it off for Xu Cang first!"
Only then did Richard Bayer react.
Xia Shuyue could still hold on a little, but Xu Cang couldn't. This time, Xu Cang was about to suffocate to death.
However, Richard Bayer did not notice that due to the impact of the explosion, Xia Shuyue did not head towards Haneda Airport after leveling the plane, but dived diagonally in the opposite direction.
Outside the windshield, a towering iron tower stood in the middle of the plane's flight path. At this time, the tower was brightly lit, but it could be vaguely identified that it was a red and white iron tower, and its style was very similar to the Eiffel Tower.
This is Tokyo Tower!
Recalling the hearing this morning, Xu Cang used the example of the possibility of "a plane crashing into the Tokyo Tower" and was scolded by the people watching the meeting for talking nonsense and being arrogant.
However, within just a dozen hours, his words came true!
