Chapter 84 The fuselage is broken?
In the cockpit of Blue Sky 9211, the captain and the first co-pilot were both trying hard to pull the steering column back, but the downdraft from the outside was so strong that the plane could not lift its head. Even the combined efforts of the two were of no avail.
The voice of regional control echoed in the headphones and speakers, but for some reason, the radio sound interference was very serious and Xu Cang could not hear what the controller was saying at all.
But we can roughly guess what the content is. Now they are diving all the way from 9,800 meters, it would be abnormal if the area controller was not in a hurry.
However, now it is not that they do not want to return to the original altitude, but the downdraft is always suppressing their ascent.
However, all of a sudden, the radio communication signal seemed to be better, and the anxious voice of the regional controller sounded in the headset and speaker at the same time: "Blue Sky 9211, maintain altitude immediately, there is an artillery firing area below!"
This sentence was so shocking that it reached the ears of the three people in the cockpit at the same time. Even the captain and the first co-pilot in the front seat were slightly stunned. But after a moment of distraction, the two of them pulled the stick back like crazy, and the veins on their foreheads were faintly visible.
At this moment, the two people in front of them certainly couldn't reply to the controller, so Xu Cang communicated on their behalf. He happened to have a handheld microphone and immediately called the Urumqi control: "Urumqi, Lantian 9211, where is the range of the artillery firing area below?"
The controller in the regional control room, who had been on edge for a long time, was overjoyed when he heard Xu Cang's voice. He immediately said anxiously, "Anywhere below 8,500 meters is a firing zone, and the activities in the firing zone have not stopped yet. I have already contacted the military and requested a suspension of firing activities, but I don't know if it will be too late. You guys hurry up and maintain your altitude."
"Eight thousand five hundred meters?" Xu Cang glanced at the altimeter. At this moment, the plane's altitude was almost nine thousand meters, but the descent rate was still close to two thousand feet per minute. At the current descent rate, a height of more than five hundred meters would only take about one minute.
The conversation between the controller and Xu Cang was also heard by the captain and the first co-pilot, and the hairs on their bodies stood up. Below was the active artillery firing area, and if they went in there, wouldn't they be used as targets?
But now the plane's descent rate showed no sign of decreasing, and the captain began to panic. Seeing that pulling the stick back did not improve the situation, he began to push the elevator back to balance the situation.
Xu Cang's mind was now fully focused on the subsequent response measures, and he did not notice the captain's behavior of constantly adjusting the trim wheel. In addition, the cockpit was relatively noisy at the moment, and the screams coming from the cabin behind were also obscuring Xu Cang's perception. He did not hear the sound of the trim wheel turning at all.
"Wu City..."
Just when Xu Cang wanted to continue communicating with the controller to see if there were any other emergency measures, he had just said two words when his speech was suddenly interrupted. Amid the chaotic sounds around him, he seemed to hear a hint of unusual movement.
However, the noise from the outside world was too chaotic. He only felt it but could not be sure if he really heard it. However, Xu Cang could not tell what the noise that aroused his heartstrings was. But this interruption focused Xu Cang's mind. He suddenly noticed that the trim wheel of the plane was turning backwards. Then he saw that the captain's left thumb was just on the electric trim switch. He could not help but sweat on his back.
"What are you doing?" Xu Cang had no time to talk to the controller and shouted, "Release the trim!"
The first co-pilot was shocked by Xu Cang's roar, but the captain responded sharply: "Didn't you hear that there is an artillery firing area below? Shut up and don't interfere with our operations."
Now the captain's mind was no longer able to think of anything else but how to recover the plane from the dive. The 500-meter altitude couldn't hold out for long!
"Damn it!" Xu Cang wanted to slap the captain, but in the end he held back.
The reason why Xu Cang was so furious was that pitch trim cannot be used excessively when the nose of the aircraft is too low. Not only will this kind of manipulation not help in recovery, it may even have a counterproductive effect and increase the aircraft's air load.
This should be the most basic recovery procedure. However, the captain is now blinded by one thing and cannot tolerate any questioning.
At this moment, the cockpit suddenly rang with a cabin communication request bell. This was the crew calling them. At such a critical moment, how could the cockpit have the energy to take care of the cabin affairs? Xu Cang ignored the cabin bell.
However, as there was no response from the cockpit, the cabin kept calling out, so much so that the cockpit was filled with the cabin's call bells.
"Come and cause trouble at this time!"
Xu Cang was really annoyed. The cabin was already in chaos, and now he had to intervene. Logically speaking, the other young flight attendants were ignorant, so how could the chief flight attendant not know? Why was he still calling the cockpit at this time?
Xu Cang, who had finally been fed up, couldn't take it anymore and switched the transmitter to the internal communication channel of the cabin: "What's going on?"
However, the person who answered Xu Cang was not the chief flight attendant, but Xia Shuyue, a trainee flight attendant on this flight.
Xia Shuyue originally thought that the captain would answer the call, but she didn't expect that it was Xu Cang's voice when she answered. She was overjoyed and said hurriedly: "Brother, I heard a creaking sound in the rear cabin, and it's getting more and more obvious now."
"Crunching sound?" After this reminder, Xu Cang instantly thought of the slight noise that he seemed to hear just now. Could it be the creaking sound that Xia Shuyue described?
"No, no, no!" Almost immediately, Xu Cang thought of a bad possibility. No, to be precise, it was very bad.
He quickly switched the transmitter back to the first VHF and informed the Urumqi controller on the channel: "Blue Sky 9211, affected by the downdraft, we will descend below 8,500 meters. Please contact the military as soon as possible to suspend activities."
After finishing speaking, Xu Cang didn't even wait for the controller's reply. He put down the microphone and shouted at the two guys in front of him who were still using the stick to adjust the balance: "Stop, the aircraft load is going to exceed the limit!"
In the regional control room, after receiving Xu Cang's notification, the controller was at a loss at first, and then his heart seemed to be grasped tightly and almost stopped. Then, he stood up again and shouted at Cheng Yuan, a colleague who was in the corner and was responsible for contacting the bureau: "Cheng Yuan, hurry up, the plane is about to break through the top of the artillery area."
Cheng Yuan was holding the landline receiver, sweating profusely, and kept repeating, "It's almost there, it's almost there!"
At this moment, the director of the Urumqi control room came in leisurely. He had just gone out to get some fresh air and now he was really refreshed. However, as soon as he came in, he heard someone shouting inside, and he couldn't help but get angry: "What are you doing? Why are you shouting so loudly?"
As he spoke, he immediately spotted the area controller who was still standing there: "What's the matter? What's the fuss?"
When the regional controller saw the director finally came back, his face fell: "Director, something serious has happened."
In the cockpit, Xu Cang once again asked the captain and co-pilot to stop, but the two men in front seemed not to have heard Xu Cang's words and continued to operate the plane with their heads down.
Xu Cang became completely gloomy. Seeing that the plane was almost at the top of the firing area, and the plane's descent rate remained consistent, and the two people in front of him were insisting on their own way, Xu Cang suddenly felt an uncontrollable anger in his chest.
At the moment of life and death, Xu Cang didn't care about so much, and shouted decisively: "You two idiots, stop it right now!"
Because he was too excited, Xu Cang unconsciously clenched his right hand, and happened to press the microphone in his right hand. In an instant, Xu Cang's voice was directly collected.
At the director's instruction, the regional controller just switched the radio signal to the loudspeaker. In an instant, most of the Urumqi regional control room was filled with Xu Cang's shouting.
The staff in the huge regional control room looked at each other, all wondering if all the crew members of Blue Sky Airlines were so fierce. Even the usually calm director was shocked by Xu Cang's angry words.
However, the anxious voice of the area controller was soon heard: "Director, they are about to pass through the top of the artillery area!"
The director immediately turned his attention to the radar. He saw that the plane had dropped to 8,600 meters, touching the top of the firing zone, and was still dropping. It seemed that the plane had already broken through the limit.
The director's heart tightened, and he looked at Cheng Yuan in the corner again: "Has the coordination been completed? The plane has already entered."
"We are coordinating, coordinating." Cheng Yuan was upset: "Don't rush me, I am getting overwhelmed."
Originally, such a planned military activity could not be stopped at will, not to mention that civil aviation and military aviation were already independent, and the coordination between the two systems was inherently lagging. However, both the regional controller and the director kept urging him, which made him even more anxious.
The director was also an expert. He stopped bothering me after I mentioned this. Instead, he called the area controller and asked , "You just said that the crew reported that the plane's unplanned descent was due to an unexpected downdraft?"
"That's right, that's what the crew said," the regional controller confirmed.
"What a strong downdraft!" the director was surprised. The Boeing 737 is not a small single-engine propeller training plane, but a behemoth weighing tens of tons. It is rare that it can be pressed down by the downdraft and cannot fly. The director looked at the radar screen and asked again: "Where did they start to descend?"
The area controller recalled and pointed to a dot on the radar screen: "It's the dot after P37."
"Then, with P37 as the center point, no aircraft are allowed to enter within a radius of 40 nautical miles. Contact the General Dispatching Office and apply for a temporary restricted area." The director paused and said, "Also, inform the Urumqi Meteorological Observatory of the situation and ask them to re-analyze the weather intensity in the area. Also... inform the Lanshan, Jianchuan, and Hanjing control and ask them to explain the situation to aircraft flying to our area in advance. In addition, notify Blue Sky Airlines..."
In the cockpit, Xu Cang's fierce words did not have any effect at all. Instead, they angered the captain. He shouted back: "The plane is about to enter the firing zone. You asked us to stop. Do you want us to be shot down like a target? Without the rod and without backing up to balance, what do you think we should do?"
Xu Cang was even more furious. This captain was truly hopeless, so he loudly retorted: "In a large-angle dive, if you pull the stick too hard and too fast, the load on the aircraft will increase rapidly. If you keep trimming, it will only increase the load even faster. Once the load on the aircraft exceeds the standard, the fuselage is likely to break."
However, the captain's mind was now completely occupied with the artillery fire area, so he had no time to listen to Xu Cang's words.
In common sense, if the plane is going down, you have to pull the stick, which is an instinctive reaction for all pilots. However, a truly excellent pilot will not be dominated by instinct, but can always keep a clear mind to distinguish various situations.
Just as Xu Cang finished speaking, the first co-pilot suddenly shouted, "Brother, the plane has descended below 8,500 meters and entered the artillery range."
The controller hadn't sent a message to stop the firing zone, so what was waiting for them below might be a barrage of shells. The captain ignored Xu Cang's reminder and increased the force on the lever, as if if the plane went down a little further, it would be hell with no chance of survival.
"Are you listening to me?" Xu Cang's face was extremely gloomy. He saw the captain's behavior of turning a deaf ear to him. He could tolerate many things, but not tolerating handing his life to a captain who had lost his mind.
After Xu Cang's final question, there was still no response from the cockpit, or they didn't even have the energy to listen to what Xu Cang was saying, but just stubbornly did what they thought was right.
Xu Cang, who could no longer bear it, raised his foot and kicked the right trim wheel. With such force, the trim wheel was stuck.
Xu Cang's behavior directly shocked the captain. He really didn't expect Xu Cang to be so bold as to interfere with their flight operations.
"What are you doing, are you crazy?" the captain shouted.
Xu Cang's eyes were extremely cold: "Can you hear me? Or... are you looking for death?"
The captain, who was repeatedly disturbed by Xu Cang, became angry: "Then there is an artillery firing area below. We are just rushing down like this. What do you think we should do?"
"I only know that if we enter the artillery fire zone, we won't necessarily die. But if you insist on going your own way, we will be dead."
Even the first co-pilot couldn't help himself and interrupted, "Then just ignore it?"
Xu Cang's voice was extremely firm: "That's right, no matter what!"
We are now in a dead end. There is no so-called foolproof solution. The only thing we can do is to distinguish which is the more fatal and urgent problem.
Is the artillery zone dangerous? Especially the active artillery zone. There is no doubt that it is very dangerous, but the problem is that when the artillery zone is demarcated, in order to prevent accidents, it is usually much larger than the actual coverage area of the artillery shells. Moreover, the people below will not shoot at them. Overall, even if you enter the artillery zone, the probability of being hit is not very high.
But if the stick is pulled in a hard zone and the trim is increased backwards, the aircraft itself will break or disintegrate due to the excessive load without being hit by a shell. The sound that Xu Cang vaguely heard just now was actually the same as the sound that Xia Shuyue heard after she reacted, that is, the sound of the fuselage beginning to deform, which is quite dangerous.
At this moment, the captain was simply insane. Xu Cang didn't care about other times, but at this critical moment, when he had already explained that the aircraft was about to be overwhelmed, if the captain still couldn't wake up, then he didn't have time to get along with the captain and would do it himself.
"Don't move the trim. You can pull the stick, but don't pull it hard. Pull it back slowly. Don't rush to change it. We are at a sufficient altitude. The downwash will not last forever, and as the altitude decreases, the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft will increase, and the aircraft itself will offset the impact of the downwash."
At this time, Xu Cang didn't look like a second co-pilot at all. Instead, he was the captain in the cockpit, commanding everything.
It must be said that Xu Cang's kick did have some effect. At least the captain calmed down a little. He did not adjust the trim again, and his movements with the stick were not so rough.
The dense raindrops hit the fuselage, making crackling noises. Apart from that, there was no other sound in the cockpit, which seemed extremely strange.
Suddenly the captain said: "We don't care about the altitude, what if we are hit by a shell?"
At this critical moment, Xu Cang seemed extremely resolute: "That's our fate!"
