Chapter 85: Eternal Darkness
In the office of the general manager of the flight department of Blue Sky Airlines, Lu Jinghua lay back in his chair, still playing with the business card given by Li Rongcheng, with a look of satisfaction on his face.
Not only that, Lu Jinghua's phone was always on vibrate mode before. But now, he has set it to ring mode, and the ring volume is set to the maximum, for fear that he would miss a call.
Although Li Rongcheng said that even if there was a vacancy, he would not be contacted for at least two months, but Lu Jinghua was very concerned about this. What if something changed and he was notified in advance?
While Lu Jinghua was still dreaming, a person hurriedly came into the open office door. Lu Jinghua looked closely and found that it was Luo Yong, the vice president of operations.
Lu Jinghua quickly put away the business card and stood up: "Mr. Luo, what's wrong? You look like you have something urgent to do?"
"It's urgent." Luo Yong pulled a chair and sat opposite Lu Jinghua. He got straight to the point: "Nothing important tomorrow, right?"
Lu Jinghua was startled: "Ah? Let me take a look at this, it seems that there is none."
"No need to look at it. If there is any, just turn it down." Luo Yong knocked on the table, his face full of solemnity: "Some time ago, Wang Xuan went to the bureau, and it seems that the matter of 777 has not been settled. We need to change our thinking."
Lu Jinghua didn't take this matter too seriously and just answered perfunctorily, "The authorities see that we don't have experience in operating international routes. We're not a state-owned enterprise, so the standards must be stricter."
"That's what we said, but if the authority doesn't approve the routes for us, how can we accumulate operating experience?" Luo Yong was filled with anger when he talked about this.
However, if you want to work in the civil aviation circle, you have to look at the faces of your superiors. You can only do what they tell you to do. If you can't do something, you can't do it. Don't even think about anything else.
Lu Jinghua curled his lips: "Yes, there is nothing we can do about it."
Compared with expanding international routes and introducing 777, Lu Jinghua cared more about Li Rongcheng's promise.
"I also thought there was no way before, but now I have an idea to tell you, just listen." Luo Yong suddenly said mysteriously: "I think this is a great way for us to break through the restrictions of the authorities."
"Really?" Lu Jinghua did not comment.
Lu Jinghua has never been optimistic about Luo Yong's intelligence. The bottleneck the company is facing now comes from the bureau, which is not easy to clear. Otherwise, how can the flight department, marketing department and strategy department not come up with a solution?
Perhaps this method exists, but it probably doesn't come from Luo Yong.
Seeing Lu Jinghua's disbelieving expression, Luo Yong sighed: "Don't disbelieve me, I'll talk to you. We can't get past the bureau now, so why don't we just bypass it for the time being?"
"Are you talking about bypassing the authorities, Mr. Luo?" Lu Jinghua looked at Luo Yong in disbelief: "You are kidding, we can bypass the authorities, how do we do it?"
Luo Yong said excitedly: "Although the authority did not approve our application for international routes, it only denied our right to independently operate international routes. Since we cannot become the main body, why don't we rely on another company that has the right to operate international routes?"
Lu Jinghua was the general manager of the flight department after all, so he immediately understood Luo Yong's idea and asked tentatively, "Boss Luo, are you saying that you want to cooperate with other companies in operations?"
Luo Yong raised a finger and corrected the ambiguity in Lu Jinghua's words: "To be precise, it is just the joint operation of a single route."
Lu Jinghua was stunned on the spot. After thinking about it for a long time, he found that this was a feasible plan. Some small airlines lacked experience in certain routes at the beginning, so they either paid a sum of money to learn from large companies or asked to jointly operate related routes with large companies in order to learn from their experience.
The authorities generally do not intervene in such exchanges between airlines, because from a macro perspective, it also helps improve the overall level of domestic airlines. Moreover, the approval of the authorities for joint operation rights is not very strict, because even if there is a joint operation right, the main body is dependent on the airline that owns the route.
Even if the airline that owns this route withdraws later, the jointly operated airline cannot directly inherit it and still needs to apply separately again.
To put it bluntly, in the eyes of the authorities, joint operation is a means of communication between airlines. As for other purposes, don't think too much. But now, what Blue Sky Airlines lacks is experience.
Although it cannot be said that the authority did not accept Blue Sky Airlines' application simply because of its lack of experience in operating international routes, at least Luo Yong's plan is moving towards a solution and is feasible.
Luo Yong really proposed a practical and logical plan, which made Lu Jinghua a little unacceptable.
Facing Lu Jinghua's incredulous expression, Luo Yong acted quite unhappy: "You seem surprised?"
"No, no!" Lu Jinghua shook his head like a rattle and quickly denied: "Mr. Luo, I'm just thinking about which airline to cooperate with. The three major airlines seem to be able to do it. However, they may not be too lazy to take us out to play!"
Although it is a bit heartbreaking, this is the situation. The three major airlines are big and powerful, why would they share their operating experience for nothing, why would they take a kid like you along to play?
Even if you go to the headquarters of the three major airlines now, you may not be able to meet their top leaders.
Just like the international route operating rights that Blue Sky Airlines has been dreaming of, the Big Three airlines have had them since their establishment and have never been unable to obtain them. And this is the difference.
Luo Yong did not scold Lu Jinghua for saying discouraging words, because this was the fact and they both knew it very well.
"So I hurried over to find you. We have a very good opportunity now, you have to grab it." As he said that, Luo Yong grabbed Lu Jinghua's hand and said, "Only you can do this."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Mr. Luo." Lu Jinghua quickly pulled his hand away: "Mr. Luo, please tell me what it is first. What if I can't do it?"
Luo Yong waved his hand: "Who else but you?"
Lu Jinghua immediately felt something was wrong, but he remained sober despite Luo Yong's flattery: "Boss Luo, first tell me what you want me to do?"
"Is that so?" Luo Yong supported himself on the table with both hands and suddenly stood up, his face full of excitement. "I just heard a piece of news that Mr. Ma from the strategic department of Muhua Airlines is now in Jianchuan, and I got his schedule for tomorrow. Your task is to intercept him tomorrow, and then, no matter what means you use, convince him to agree to jointly operate an international route with us."
"Mr. Ma?" Lu Jinghua suddenly remembered that when he went to see Li Rongcheng before, there was a middle-aged man with extraordinary demeanor beside him. He also heard from his friends that the man seemed to be from Muhua Airlines. Could that man be the Mr. Ma that Luo Yong mentioned?
In Muhua Airlines, the Strategy Department is indeed a key department. It is responsible for formulating the company's main development direction and has the power to approve the joint operation of a single route.
However, there is also a problem here...
"Mr. Luo, what exactly do you mean by 'no matter what means'?" Lu Jinghua asked sincerely.
Luo Yong just needs to snap his lips and the specific operations all depend on Lu Jinghua alone. It's so easy to be a leader.
However, Lu Jinghua still didn't expect Luo Yong's shamelessness. Luo Yong spread his hands and said, "It depends on your performance on the spot."
Lu Jinghua was dumbfounded and couldn't help asking, "Boss Luo, I'm afraid my level is not enough for such a big matter, right? How about you come forward and I'll accompany you?"
Luo Yong's face suddenly froze: "Jinghua, I'm not trying to make things difficult for you. Let me tell you the truth! Mr. Ma and I were in the same aviation school. We know each other, but our relationship is not that... harmonious. Although I am now the company's vice president of operations and nominally higher in rank than him, I am actually not as good as him. I know this very well. If I were to come forward, I would definitely be ridiculed, even if we can't negotiate. That would be more painful than death."
Lu Jinghua looked at Luo Yong's gnashing teeth and felt if he had been humiliated. If he met that Mr. Ma, he would rather die on the spot to preserve his reputation.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Lu Jinghua didn't bother to care whether Luo Yong was making it up or not. His boss had already brought up such a shameful thing, and it would be a bit rude of him to object. However, he had a question: "Boss Luo, I remember that many international routes of Muhua Airlines use 747s. We don't use 777s anymore?"
"I thought about it. The ETOPS (extended range twin-engine flight) certification of the 777 has not been completed. Although Boeing has been saying that it will definitely be completed, what if?" Luo Yong's eyes narrowed slowly, like a cunning fox: "We can't just hang ourselves on a tree. Or is it that the authority has received news that there is a problem with the ETOPS certification of the 777, so they have not agreed?"
"That shouldn't be the case! Boeing has assured everyone that 777ETOPS has been verified , how could there be any problem?" No matter how Lu Jinghua thought about it, he felt that it was not as outrageous as Luo Yong said. It was just that 777 had indeed been stuck on ETOPS for a long time, so it was understandable that it aroused people's imagination.
If the 777 cannot pass the ETOPS certification, then the aircraft will not be able to carry out long-distance transoceanic flights. Wouldn't that make it half useless?
Just as Lu Jinghua was thinking, a young man suddenly rushed in from outside the door, hurriedly and very panicked.
When Lu Jinghua took a look, he realized that it was Luo Yong’s secretary Huang Zixin.
"Xiao Huang, what are you doing? Is ?" Although Huang Zixin is young, he is steady and rarely gets so panicked.
"Huh?" Hearing Lu Jinghua calling his secretary's name at the door, Luo Yong looked back curiously. It was indeed his secretary: "What's wrong? What happened?"
"Boss Luo, Boss Lu, something really happened!" Huang Zixin took a breath before saying, "Our company's flight 9211 had a problem in Urumqi."
…
In the cockpit of Blue Sky Flight 9211, the captain finally listened to Xu Cang's advice. Regardless of whether the plane was descending or not, he pulled the stick back gently and consistently to avoid rough and sudden movements.
Xu Cang was right about one thing. Downdrafts usually only occur within a certain area. It is impossible for downdrafts to occur all the way from more than 9,000 meters to low altitudes. That would be too wide a range and basically impossible.
This extremely strong downdraft is beyond human control. If it is resisted forcibly, the aircraft as the receiving party will suffer great damage, and even the fuselage will break and disintegrate in the air. This is normal.
Therefore, the pilot needs to follow the force of the downdraft like a bullfight . When it is at its most fierce, just make sure the aircraft does not dive too fast or too low. When the downdraft begins to weaken, you can try to correct the aircraft's state.
At this time, the plane was at an altitude of nine kilometers, which was enough for the pilots to tame the downdraft. The only thing they had to worry about was whether they would be hit by a shell. Of course, at this time, they were completely in the dark, so how could they know the situation below? Whether they would be hit or not was entirely up to God.
However, they have now broken through to the artillery firing area, and the radar of the regional control should be able to see it. If they have any brains, the regional control will coordinate with the military to suspend the artillery firing activities. Moreover, in this era not necessary to make a scene of thousands of artillery firing at the same time. Maybe there are only a few artillery below, so the probability of being hit is actually not high.
Therefore, no matter from which angle you look at it, accidentally entering the firing zone is not the most urgent situation. The most urgent situation is that the fragile fuselage can't stand the tossing.
As Xu Cang said, as the altitude decreases, the air density increases, and the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft naturally increases. Due to the pitch stability of large passenger aircraft, even if the pilot does not intervene, the aircraft itself will tend to gradually correct the pitch attitude back to a relatively reasonable value, that is, the nose of the aircraft will automatically rise to reduce the descent rate.
Xu Cang had never worried about the abnormal dive of the aircraft caused by downdraft. His only worry was the captain's rough operation.
At this time, Xu Cang had already retracted his feet. With the captain's gentle operation, the plane's descent rate began to gradually decrease, and it seemed that it was under effective control.
Seeing that what Xu Cang said made sense, the captain didn't know what to say anymore, so he followed Xu Cang's advice, but he was still worried about the cannon fire. Although the possibility of being hit was theoretically small, it still existed and was not negligible. He didn't want to risk his life to test the possibility.
Seeing that the plane was about to turn around, Xu Cang immediately contacted the controller: "Urumqi, Blue Sky 9211, the plane has almost regained control..."
Before Xu Cang finished speaking, the anxious controller interrupted: "Blue Sky 9211, we have coordinated with the military, and the artillery fire in the area has been suspended."
In fact, it was quite rare and unprofessional for the controller to interrupt, but at this special moment, Xu Cang was too lazy to care about it, especially when he heard that the artillery fire had stopped, even he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
The two people sitting in the front felt relieved, they were finally saved!
However, listening to the sound of heavy rain outside and feeling the still bumpy plane, Xu Cang felt that he still couldn't fly forward, so he bypassed the captain and asked the controller: "Blue Sky 9211, I can't fly forward anymore. This weather is impassable. I'm applying for a right turn."
The captain in front could hear what Xu Cang said, but he didn't say anything, which was considered as tacit approval of Xu Cang's decision. He was almost scared to death just now, who would dare to continue flying forward?
There were also cases where the weather was too bad to circumvent or pass and the decision was to return. Xu Cang did not think much when he applied. However, the controller rejected the request directly after hearing this: "No! Blue Sky 9211, I have emphasized before that there is only ten degrees of space for left and right maneuvers in this airspace. If you turn around, you will enter the restricted area. Absolutely not!"
Xu Cang then remembered that the controller had indeed said so before.
"But if we fly forward again..." Xu Cang changed the language slightly: "Can we coordinate? We can just turn a corner."
"No!" The controller rejected the request without thinking: "Blue Sky 9211, I know your current situation, but you are not allowed to enter the restricted areas on the left and right. The situation is very serious. Blue Sky 9211, you can apply for other altitudes."
"Other altitude layers?" Xu Cang didn't dare to go up at all now. There was no possibility of overcoming the weather. Moreover, the weather was so strong that even if the plane climbed to the ceiling, it might not be able to overcome it.
It is quite normal for some high intensity hazardous weather to exceed 40,000 vertical feet.
However, just as Xu Cang was thinking about a solution, the originally pitch-black outside world suddenly flashed with a dazzling light. Before Xu Cang could react, a sharp whistling sound that almost pierced his eardrums suddenly came from his headphones. Xu Cang took off his headphones as if he had been electrocuted.
But before Xu Cang could recover from the shrill sound in the headphones, he felt a darkness in front of his eyes, and the lights and display screens in the cockpit all went out instantly.
