Chapter 453 ? Eight Minutes

Chapter 453 Eight Minutes

The cabin was a bit chaotic. Passengers sitting in the front and middle seats stopped to place their luggage, causing congestion. The stewardess kept reminding them to move out of the aisle, and the queue slowly moved forward.

Although the atmosphere was a little irritable, it was nothing to those who were finally able to board their flights home for the New Year. There were acquaintances laughing and chatting, discussing what gifts they had brought home and what parties they would attend when they returned home.

The same scene will appear in any kind of transportation during the more than month-long Spring Festival travel period. The annual human migration of more than 100 million people is in full swing. Young and hard-working people are the most dynamic and important part of this country's economic engine, driving China's huge plane to fly forward at high speed.

The Boeing-737 carrying this flight rolled out of the parking bay, then joined the take-off queue along the taxiway, and slowly headed towards the take-off line of the runway.

Through the cabin window, Li Zhan saw a huge all-cargo plane parked at the far end of the parking bay. It was a Boeing-747-400 heavy-duty cargo plane that might have been in service for more than ten years. Its figure was a little blurry in the falling light snow, but it did not affect Li Zhan's memory of his senior sister Zhu Qingying. Revisiting the valley always makes it easier to think of people and things from the past.

I don’t know how my senior sister is doing.

The plane took off with a rumble. With the help of advanced flight control systems, modern airliners can fly safely in low visibility conditions. After departing according to standard procedures, the aircraft continued to climb to cruising altitude, during which course adjustment was completed. Flight attendants began to provide services.

The cold air from the south meets the hot air from the western part of the South China Sea. The brave will win in a narrow encounter. However, this confrontation will eventually end with the failure of the hot air after the cold air that supplements the south arrives. The atmosphere in Central and South China will inevitably enter a long winter. At this moment, the intersection of hot and cold fronts is forming a turbulent area that is thousands of kilometers long and more than fifty kilometers wide, like a wall blocking the front of Southern 1993.

Forty minutes into the flight, Li Zhan first noticed something unusual. He couldn't see the sun through the cabin window - this was at an altitude of 9,800 meters.

It is extremely rare for clouds to appear at an altitude of 10,000 meters, which means that there are super cumulonimbus clouds ahead, and it is almost difficult for aircraft to fly over them by increasing their altitude. The ceiling of a general passenger aircraft is 12,000 meters. At this altitude, the lift obtained by the aircraft will be reduced, requiring the engine to provide greater power to maintain flight.

Combining the weather data he got from Zhang Yuan along the way, Li Zhan believed that the front was impassable anyway. He remembered that not far from the right wing was navigation point No. 7, and the peak of navigation point No. 7 was thousands of meters high. It has been obscured by thick cloud peaks, which means that flying around is basically impossible.

Li Zhan pressed the service light.

The stewardess with a sweet smile came over quickly, first turned off the service light and then said to Li Zhan, who was sitting in the last row next to the toilet, "Sir, do you need anything?"

Li Zhan took out his ID and said, "I am an Air Force professional. The weather ahead may be bad. I suggest the crew ask for the latest weather report or even make an alternate landing."

The words were shocking. Anyway, the stewardess was shocked. It took a while for the stewardess to come back to her senses and said, "Comrade, are you saying that you can't fly in front of me?"

She looked at Li Zhan's military officer's ID card very carefully. The military rank on it, Air Force Major, was undoubtedly the most convincing. On the contrary, the external unit code name was incomprehensible.

Li Zhan said seriously, "Based on my experience, it is very dangerous to fly over. Please convey my opinion to the captain immediately."

The stewardess handed the ID back to Li Zhan with both hands and said with a smile, "Comrade, please rest assured. We are professionally trained and confident and capable of ensuring your safety."

Li Zhan frowned and was about to say that you must be unprofessional. When he suddenly realized that this was a commercial flight, he could only shake his head and shut his mouth.

"Do you need anything else?" the stewardess asked Li Zhan.

Li Zhan said, "I know it may not be appropriate, but based on my experience, the front is a front where hot and cold air meet. The airflow is very chaotic, and the captain will soon be able to see high-altitude lightning. By that time There is no time. If possible, I still hope you can convey my judgment to the captain."

This time the flight attendant said nothing, turned around and walked towards the front cabin. She would first report to the flight attendant, who would then decide whether to convey Li Zhan's judgment to the captain. Although the whole process takes less than a few minutes, the weather can change much faster than anyone imagines.

It seemed that it suddenly became dark outside the window, and many passengers noticed that the plane flew into the clouds, and there were large and thick clouds.

If the captain made a decisive U-turn at this time, he would still have time to get away from the bad weather. However, the captain had no idea that the weather ahead had changed dramatically, and the flight attendant was still considering whether to convey the warning from a passenger in the army to the captain. .

The captain is the absolute authority on the aircraft, and it is normal for the flight attendant and stewardess to have concerns.

When the flight attendant decided to inform the captain, Southern Flight 1993 had already plunged into the "mixer". Almost at the same time, the captain received the latest weather forecast from the air traffic control center recommending a detour, but at this time the captain realized that the turn This will put the aircraft into a more dangerous situation.

After the plane started to tremble violently, the flight attendant came over and said to Li Zhan, "Comrade Major, the captain please come over."

Li Zhan stood up and left.

The unexpected bumps made all the passengers hold their breath and concentrate. Some nervously looked outside through the cabin window. The sky was dark and covered with clouds. Some stared straight ahead and grabbed the armrests of the seats with their hands. Nowadays, no one ignores the most popular words of flight attendants - please fasten your seat belt.

Most of the time, passengers who choose airplanes as their means of transportation will only feel that they are on an airplane during the takeoff and landing stages. The process of high-altitude cruising and descent is often very smooth and down-to-earth. But now the situation of shaking up and down, left and right makes people really feel the flight. The strong feeling of being thrown away can make people panic, and they can't help but worry that the plane will crash to the ground in the next second.

After Li Zhan entered the cockpit, he grabbed the captain and co-pilot's seat backs and said the first thing: "Increase the accelerator and rush over. There is no better way than this."

The captain looked back at Li Zhan, surprised by Li Zhan's youth, but convinced of Li Zhan's ability to predict weather changes in the airspace ahead. He said, "I have flown this route hundreds of times, and the first It’s the first time we’ve encountered such weather, it’s so abnormal! It’s probably safest to make an alternate landing.”

"No." Li Zhan said decisively, "Alternate landing requires a decrease in altitude, and the low-air flow is stronger. We are now in a frontal cloud layer where hot and cold air intertwine. The air flow is very complex and irregular. We continue to accelerate at a high altitude. Crossing it is the first choice.”

He wanted to replace him, but this was a bad idea. The situation at hand was still controllable, and pilots who could serve as captains had extremely strong handling capabilities.

The weather radar images proved that Li Zhan's idea was the safest. The clouds were chaotic and disorderly, which looked very strange. Generally speaking, they looked like a large north-south opposing airflow. The captain noticed that the darkest part of the front was only twenty or thirty kilometers wide. In this case, there was obviously no better way than to go through it.

Descending altitude will encounter stronger airflow, and turning will encounter strong crosswinds, which will put the aircraft into a more dangerous situation.

The captain was capable of handling the crisis, but Taiwan had never encountered such a situation before, and there happened to be an Air Force professional on the flight, which gave him crucial confidence.

The crew may not lack skills but may simply be unable to quickly build up confidence when encountering sudden weather changes. Li Zhan quickly realized this and made clear suggestions to help the crew build strong confidence.

He said in a deep voice, "You two don't need to worry too much. You just need to maintain the heading altitude and pass through it at the maximum speed. We will be able to see the sun. In fact, I am a fighter pilot and have encountered too many encounters in my past flying career. There were many dangers and the weather was worse than the current one, but every time I turned the bad luck and landed safely. Facts have proved that I do have good luck that ordinary people don't have, so there is no need to worry at all."

The co-pilot suddenly said, "Don't you have bad luck, Major? You know, it's the first time in so many years that we have encountered such bad weather."

Li Zhan retorted, "How can you think so? If you have bad luck, I'm afraid I can only bless you in heaven, but now I am by your side and provide any assistance at any time."

"Major, can you fly this plane?" the captain asked.

Li Zhan said, "I can fly anything with a joystick, but it's up to you to fly it. I like to fly at supersonic speeds and I'm not used to aircraft without afterburners."

"Hahaha!"

After a few words of conversation, everyone's nervousness was relieved, which was good for dealing with the current situation.

"Hold on for another five minutes, and we will be able to welcome the sun in five minutes at most." Li Zhan said in a deep voice, "But you need to pay attention to the microburst when landing. That thing is very dangerous."

The captain gasped slightly, "Is that possible? This is winter."

"Winter in the south. The key is that the Dansha Honghua Airport happens to be in the area where hot and cold air meet, and there are objective conditions to generate microbursts." Li Zhan said.

The captain nodded in approval and increased his vigilance.

Hot air rises and cold air falls. The violent downdraft formed at high altitude is called a microburst. The range is not very large but the sinking force is very strong. After hitting the ground, it will form a strong gust of wind that spreads in all directions. The wind force It can even reach speeds of up to 270 kilometers per hour, posing an extremely fatal threat to passing aircraft, especially those in the take-off and landing stages.

The intense turbulence that lasted for nearly eight minutes finally ended. The passengers felt like they were surviving the disaster, and the experienced captain breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

These eight minutes make many passengers secretly decide never to choose airplanes as a means of transportation again. In comparison, they were surprised to find that the train turned out to be so reassuring. Although the timeliness was slightly worse, at least it was not as worrying as this. But the Wenzhou high-speed train accident in July 2011 made them hesitate again...

2011 is an extraordinary year.

Then they finally saw the sun, and the weather ahead was relatively good. After another half hour of cruising, they were in the descent stage, and their destination was right ahead.

Li Zhan simply sat down in the cockpit. He didn't go anywhere after landing unsafely.