Chapter 198 Speed of Life and Death
Last week, there was a lack of assistance. Bolton was the only one operating the cockpit the whole time. He had to observe the manual, control the aircraft, and calculate the route. Therefore, the flight was particularly poor in the second half of the flight, and it crashed very quickly.
In this round, because of Gu Ji's participation, the aircraft maintained the best lift-to-drag ratio early on.
At this moment, the Boeing-7M8 is like a large glider. It can glide at a constant speed within a certain period of time just by relying on speed, wind direction, ailerons, APU and other parameters and equipment.
"I can't believe, Mr. Yasen, that you can still maintain such excellent computing skills at your age."
Bolton turned his head and looked at Gu Ji, who was many years older than him, with slight surprise. He even treated Gu Ji with a lot of respect, but when he heard "11" minutes, his pupils dimmed significantly.
"In 11 minutes, FL200, a 'glider' weighing 60 to 70 tons, can it really make an emergency landing safely..."
"Young man, if I can surprise you, why can't we create a miracle together?"
Gu Ji looked seriously into Bolton's eyes.
He knew that the young co-pilot was skilled, but because he was young and inexperienced, he was easily flustered and nervous when things happened. This was also the real gap between the co-pilot and the captain.
Although he was also panicked, he had experienced so many crisis levels and knew the importance of morale.
The more critical this situation is, the more Gu Ji needs to stabilize the situation.
Only in this way can one become an excellent SWAT commander.
Perhaps it was his calm voice and eyes full of experience and age that gave Bolton confidence.
"You are right, Mr. Yasen, let us work together to rescue the 107 passengers on AM649. Now, all instructions are carried out according to the manual, and you will make a verbal announcement. If there is an emergency..."
At the end of the sentence, Bolton looked at Gu Ji seriously and seemed to be explaining what was behind him, "Take over control immediately!"
"Understood! FL200, use APU bleed air to restore cabin pressurization."
"The APU is on! Oh God, thank you it still works."
FL200 refers to an altitude of 20,000 feet. The VMO/MMO conversion altitude is about 6,000 meters. The APU is an auxiliary power unit located at the rear of the fuselage tail. It has its own separate electric starter and is powered by a separate battery. There are independent additional gearboxes, lubrication systems, cooling systems and fire protection devices. The fuel comes from the overall fuel system on the aircraft.
At this time, the sound of the code being pressed came from outside the cab door, and the hatch was opened.
Gu Ji turned back sharply.
I thought it was a terrorist, but I didn't expect it to be Betty, the flight attendant.
Her head was hit, her hair was disheveled, her forehead was injured and blood flowed out, and the buttons of her dark blue uniform were broken open, revealing two proud breasts inside.
Perhaps frightened by Gu Ji's scary eyes, Betty tilted her head back half a step.
"Oh my god, I was shocked. How is the situation now?"
"It's very pessimistic, Betty. We encountered a double-engine failure. Although I hate to say this, please tell the passengers in the cabin to prepare for an emergency landing!"
"God……"
Betty exclaimed, her eyes filled with fear. As the crew chief, she certainly knew how low the success rate of an emergency landing with double-engine failure was.
When the other party was about to leave, Gu Ji suddenly remembered a question and hurriedly called her.
"Flight purser, you have to arrange the passengers evenly in the economy class seats to prevent the plane from being tail-heavy and head-heavy."
"I understand, leave the cabin issues to me!"
After all, Betty was a veteran crew chief, and she quickly adjusted back from her panic.
The hatch was closed, and Gu Ji and Bolton were left in the cab.
Bolton gripped the joystick.
"time."
"There are 8 minutes left. We are now in the middle of the Mexican Plateau. It is an intermountain plateau basin zone with a mainly grassland climate. The average altitude is 2,000 meters. The eastern part is blocked by the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains. The terrain is mountainous and forested, and the terrain is uneven, so we cannot go west. , if you want to find a way to find a gentle grassland, it’s best to use a road.”
Gu Ji quickly browsed the terrain map.
At this height, through the cockpit windshield, one can already see the ground, a vast green plateau with slightly undulating terrain. The entire land is covered with green trees, like a thick carpet, under the blue sky. It looks particularly fresh against the background.
But this "beautiful scene" is full of danger for the two of them.
When an aircraft makes an emergency landing in a mountainous area, these trees are equivalent to throwing nails on the highway, which will instantly destroy the landing attitude and split the fuselage into pieces.
"Mr. Yasen, have you seen the grassland?"
"No."
"time."
"5 minutes."
"I seem to see a river..."
Following the direction of Bolton's gaze, Gu Ji saw a winding brown reflective ribbon on the west side of the fuselage. Yes, this was a river in the mountains and forests.
"Bolton, you want to ditch?"
"This is the last resort."
Bolton's tone was very serious.
Ditching on water sounds feasible, but in practice it is not easy.
There is a saying in civil aviation that "it's better to shoot on the mountain than on the water." The difficulty of ditching on the water is evident. Across the world, there are many aircraft that have attempted water landings, but there has only been one case in which it was actually completed safely.
The person who accomplished this feat of forced landing on water was the famous Captain Sally.
You must know that the Hudson River where Captain Sully made an emergency landing is the main waterway in New York State in the United States. Merchant ships can pass through it and the water area is wide. Moreover, it was winter when Captain Sully made an emergency landing, and the river flow was at its lowest and the water flow was gentle.
At the moment, they have no idea about this strange river, its width, depth, height difference, and whether the current is fast or not.
Just when Gu Ji was about to speak to dissuade him.
But Bolton took out his mobile phone from his pocket and turned on the screen. The screen saver was a photo of him and a young girl. He caressed the girl's face with his eyes full of regret, "Mr. Yassen, let's take a gamble and follow my plan." Come on, stay parallel to the river, descend slowly, and keep it level, okay?"
"Wait! Bolton, I found the clearing!"
Just when he was determined to die, Gu Ji suddenly shouted loudly.
Bolton raised his head and saw that not far east of the river, there was an oval-shaped grassland exposed in the middle of the mountain forest. Judging from the proportion, it was enough for them to complete an emergency landing.
In an instant, hope and excitement rekindled in his pupils, "Fake! That's a damn grassland! Maybe we can be saved!"
"Yes! Bolton, we should go all out!"
"You are right, Mr. Yassen, time!"
"2 minutes! APU activated! Lower the flap handle to position 5!"
Gu Ji looked through the manual to find the emergency landing procedure for double engine failure, and then pushed the flap handle.
Bolton put the screen saver in front of him, kissed it, put it back in his pocket, and then quickly followed the instructions he spoke to operate the APU, "VAPP OK."
VAPP is the aircraft approach correction speed and one of the most important parameters for aircraft landing. It changes with changes in aircraft weight, landing configuration, head wind, whether automatic thrust is on, whether there is ice, and downdrafts.
If the VAPP is too fast, the plane will land hard, which is equivalent to a big fat man falling to the ground hard.
"183KT!"
Gu Ji took a look at the current speed.
The unit of aviation speed is knots, which is approximately equal to 338 kilometers per hour.
Bolton shook his head grimly.
"This speed is too fast. The model of AM649 is Boeing-7M8, with an empty weight of 41.4 tons. Including 70% of the passenger cabin, cargo hold, and fuel weight, it should be about 60 tons. The corresponding VAPP for forced landing should be 163KT."
"90 seconds! Wind direction! It's northwest wind now, the wind speed is 9.7 meters/second. We can go against the wind and dump fuel!"
"Good idea! Mr. Yasen! Fuel leak!"
"Fuel leak!"
As Bolton raised his hand to press the fuel valve, he heard two "bah" sounds, and the fuel in the cabin instantly turned into two air waves and flew out from both sides of the wing.
"60 seconds! 171KT! Spoiler alert!"
Boom buzz——!
As Bolton manipulated the ailerons to fly against the wind, the sound in the cabin became louder and the fuselage continued to shake. Gu Ji could only shout loudly into the flight headphones to prevent Bolton from hearing wrongly.
At this moment, he could clearly see the trees on both sides of the ground through the windshield.
The rapid speed of the fuselage and the blurry afterimage of the treetops made his adrenaline, heartbeat, and blood pressure all rise, and soon caused a vibrating warning on his wrist watch.
As we all know, this is the equivalent of a car running.
When your reference object is the side window, it will feel fast, but when your eyes are focused on the front, it will feel very slow.
The same is true for airplanes. When flying at high altitude, you may only be able to read the speed through the instrument. But when flying close to the ground, the all-round sensory stimulation brought by the surrounding tree trunks, sounds, and the vibration of the fuselage is quite impactful!
"30 seconds! 1000FT AGL!"
"Yasen! Landing gear!"
"landing gear!"
Gu Ji repeated this sentence and quickly turned the mechanical gear lever of the landing gear.
While the landing gear of the aircraft was lowering due to gravity, there was sudden shaking from the tail of the aircraft, followed by a grunt, and an alarm began to sound in the cabin: "APU failure! APU failure!"
Bolton yelled.
"Farke! Farke! This lousy plane, I really want to stuff the nose of the plane into the boss of Boeing!"
"Zero hour! 500FT AGL!"
This represents the absolute height, which is the true height. The true height is based on the ground, which is equivalent to the fuselage being only 500 feet or 152 meters away from the ground at this moment!
Gu Ji hurriedly pressed the headset intercom, switched the cabin communication, and reminded the cabin:
"The cabin is prepared for collision avoidance! The plane will make an emergency landing immediately!"
"Ugh..."
As soon as he said this, even though he was separated by a door, he could still hear the terrified screams of the passengers behind him.
At this time, the fuselage was already extremely close to the sky above the woods, almost grazing the tree crowns, and flew over the grassland. The plane was about to land on the ground.
"time!"
"Zero hour and 15 seconds! Level up! Ground with minimum V/S!"
"Prepare to ground!"
Seeing the grass getting closer and closer, Bolton roared, and only heard a "bang". The nose landing gear wheels suddenly hit the grass, followed by the rear landing gear, and the fuselage erupted with a "rumble" violent shaking.
"Yasen! Extend the acceleration and braking! Advance at full speed in reverse!"
"Full speed in reverse!"
"Help me put on the brakes! Yassen! Quick!"
"good!"
Gu Ji stared and pressed the brakes with all his strength. A harsh scream penetrated the fuselage and the rumbling vibrations. The rear left landing gear tire fell off, the fuselage instantly tilted to the left, and the wing crashed on the ground with a "rumbling" sound. On the ground, it was like a sharp blade, cutting rapidly on the grass.
A large amount of mud was stirred up by the wing corners, and the fuselage shook violently.
Sudden!
The wing broke, and with a "swish" sound, a piece of white metal was swept away by the wind and waves, and suddenly hit the fuselage, making a shocking loud noise, and even the entire aircraft followed.
Seeing that the open space ahead was getting smaller and smaller, the woods were getting closer and closer to the nose of the plane.
Bolton's eyes nearly popped out of his head at this moment, and Gu Ji also slammed on the brakes, his face turning red from suppressing his emotions.
"ah--!!"
“Ahhhhh——!!”
The two of them shouted at the same time, seemingly venting the fear and pressure in their hearts, while also yelling at the injustice of this disaster.
Click! Finally, the rear left landing gear was overwhelmed and completely broke, and the fuselage slid along the turf.
Chi chi chi...
The woods ahead were so close that Bolton had completely closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate.
"I don't fucking believe it. If you have the guts, just ask me to do it again!!"
The veins on Gu Ji's forehead were beating wildly, his eyes were about to burst, and his eyes were full of crazy blood. He had already pressed the brakes to the bottom with both feet. He saw the nose of the plane pressing into the woods, the tree trunks broke one by one, and the iron sheet of the nose began to collapse. shrink.
The plane suddenly stopped!
Buzz…
At this moment, the rumblings and vibrations from the outside world all disappeared, as if the whole world had been pressed on the pause button.
Bolton opened his eyes and saw the plane had successfully landed.
Turn your head sharply.
Eyes facing each other.
"Ya Sen, we..."
"Huhe, we succeeded."
"Farke! Farke-!!!"
Bolton cursed angrily, immediately took out his cell phone, and kissed his girlfriend wildly on the screen. He grabbed Gu Ji's shoulder with his other hand and shook him wildly with excitement, "We successfully made an emergency landing! We successfully completed an emergency landing in the mountain!! It's unbelievable! , my heart is almost beating out! Yasen, turn off all engine main switches! APU main switches!!"
"Me too, hehehe, fuck that shit 7M8..."
Gu Ji gasped and grinned. While helping Bolton turn off the button, he pressed the headset intercom button to communicate with the cabin: "Cabin, prepare to execute emergency evacuation procedures!"
"Everyone, calm down! Follow my arrangements and evacuate from the emergency exit!"
"God!!"
"Oh! We survived!"
"Oh my god, it's unbelievable! Thank you, captain! Woohoo..."
The steward's reminder sounded from behind the cabin door, and then the passengers burst into shocking cheers.
At this time, a spark suddenly burst out in the cabin.
"God! Mr. Yassen, we have to get out of here quickly!"
Bolton removed his seat belt and opened the door. At this time, the cabin was in chaos. The flight attendant and the only remaining flight attendant were arranging the evacuation of passengers from the emergency exit.
And the moment Gu Ji followed him out of the cab.
The sound of the system came to mind again.
[Goal: Survive for 30 minutes to complete! 】
【Please choose your reward! 】