Ten days later, Toulouse, France.
This ancient city in southwest France is a well-deserved aviation center in Europe. Rose-red bricks and tiles adorn the streets and alleys of the city, and the South Canal meanders through the center of the city, shimmering like diamonds.
Toulouse is the headquarters of Airbus, one of the world's three famous aircraft manufacturers. In addition, the headquarters of ATR is also located here.
After Fucheng arrived at the space city in Toulouse by car, he did not go to the most famous Airbus headquarters in the city, but went to ATR.
ATR72 is the plane that Martha 123 flew this time.
Last week, Fucheng and EASA investigators took a closer look at the weather conditions on the day of the accident and consulted with weather experts. The final conclusion was that the thunderclouds twenty kilometers away could never form a downward pressure that would affect the flight of Martha 123.
In addition, according to the air traffic controller, other planes flying from Zurich to Berlin that day also said that the weather was fine and no strong air flow was encountered.
So today, Fu Cheng and Old Joseph came to the ATR headquarters.
Led by the technicians, they came to the simulator workshop of ATR headquarters. This is a huge warehouse, from ATR's most classic ATR42 aircraft, to the subsequent ATR72, 82, everything. It's not that there are many aircraft models displayed here, but that there are many flight simulators.
A flight simulator is a device used by pilots to simulate flight on the ground.
Only the cockpit is reserved for the entire simulator. After the pilot sits in the cockpit, he uses the ultra-wide-angle long-distance large screen to simulate real flight. Through the simulator, you can personally feel the turbulence of the aircraft when it encounters airflow, the vibration of the engine, and even the overweight feeling during inertial takeoff. Everything is no different from real flight.
Fucheng took the form handed over by the ATR technician, checked the task content checked on it, and handed it back to the other party. He said in English: "Okay, just follow the above."
"OK."
Fucheng boarded the plane with Old Joseph.
The two sat in the driver's seat and fastened their seat belts. The "aircraft" in the simulator are all parked in the channel building at the beginning, and the pilot needs to take off by himself.
Just like sitting on a real plane, Fucheng starts the power system of the plane according to the standard procedure. With a calm voice, he spoke methodically about the contents of the flight list. On the other side, the old Joseph sitting in the co-pilot's seat is the co-pilot today, and he is responsible for confirming the procedure and ground radio contact.
Fucheng: "... Martha flight 123, please take off."
As if someone really responded, after waiting for a while, Fucheng looked up at Old Joseph. The two looked at each other and nodded slightly. In the next second, Fu Cheng pressed the throttle lever with one hand and pulled it back. The roaring sound of the engine reverberated in the small cockpit, and on the huge screen in front of him, the surrounding buildings and vehicles quickly flew backwards.
When reaching the decisive speed, Fu Cheng pressed down on the accelerator.
"Om—"
The nose of the aircraft rose sharply, and the scene in front of him suddenly turned into a blue sky and white clouds.
Ten seconds later, Fu Chengcheng said: "The takeoff was successful."
In the co-pilot's seat, the old Joseph smiled while flipping through the manual: "There is no turbulence, which is perfect. If every pilot can take off so smoothly, I think there will be at least half of the airsick passengers in the cabin. After a pause, he looked towards Fucheng, "Fu, what made you decide to take a mock test drive? I have the same opinion as Reid, the pilot will not be the main reason this time."
Yes, it was Fucheng's decision to specially come to the French ATR headquarters and conduct a test flight this time.
After confirming that the weather was not the cause of the crash, Fu Cheng thought for a long time, and proposed a test flight to Zhuo Huan.
At that time, Zhuo Huan was confirming the list of cargo on the plane with investigators.
After half a month of careful inspection, and sent the charred goods to be tested, the investigation team determined that there were absolutely no flammable and explosive items in these goods, let alone a bomb.
Taking a pen to sign the list of goods, Zhuo Huan raised his head when he heard Fu Cheng's words. He was a little tired, his almost non-sleeping work made his eyes look a little blue, frowning and looking at Fucheng, Zhuo Huan said: "Do you think...the pilot? Did you listen to the cockpit voice record."
Fucheng naturally knew what he was going to say: "Listen. Obviously, before the aircraft system suddenly issued a warning, the pilots did not show any abnormalities, and they did not make mistakes to cause the flight to roll over."
"Oh? So?"
Looking at the man in front of him, Fu Cheng raised his head slightly: "I never said that the pilot is the main cause, but Mr. Zhuo, the curve of the rolling posture is really strange. I want to know...under what circumstances, a civil aviation aircraft To be able to do that magical roll."
Qingming's eyes lingered on the young man for a moment, Zhuo Huan looked away: "It's up to you."
So, there was a scene where the old Joseph accompanied Fucheng to the ATR company for a test flight today.
Old Joseph: "What is the first situation in today's test flight..." He looked at the flight test form and exclaimed, "Hydraulic system failure? Hydraulic system failure, I'm too old to take it."
Fucheng didn't respond to the joke: "How high is it?"
Old Joseph straightened his face immediately: "It's 15,000 feet."
"speed?"
"Section 196."
Fu Cheng looked up at the time, he narrowed his eyes slightly, and held the rudder tightly with both hands: "Get ready, it's about to start... 3, 2, 1..."
"boom-"
The plane tilted to one side suddenly, and a huge sense of weightlessness swept over the hearts of the two of them. The human body tells the brain at the first moment that they are weightless! However, in the cockpit, the two excellent pilots did not seem to feel this strong sense of weightlessness. Their bodies were firmly pressed on the seats by the seat belts, but the two looked calm and showed no signs of fear.
Fu Cheng sternly said: "How much speed?"
Old Joseph: "176 knots, fall fast!"
"What about the height?"
"13,500 feet! Vol, what should I do?"
The plane was still falling, and Fucheng, who was controlling the plane, gave an order to his co-pilot in an extremely calm voice: "Completely restore the scene of the air crash. This plane is now under my control, until the moment before it is about to hit the mountain, you All you have to do is go through the manual, tell me what to do in this situation, and report real-time data to me. At the end when it hits the mountain, you start to putter like crazy, trying to save it."
Old Joseph: "Good!"
"Altitude 9,500 feet, speed 179 knots."
"5,000 feet at 172 knots."
"2500 feet, 1... volts, we hit a mountain."
In the simulator, the aircraft whose hydraulic system failed was still plummeting to the ground. Twenty seconds later, it crashed to the ground, and pitch black appeared on the big screen. However, in reality, Fucheng had already let go of the rudder.
Old Joseph wiped the sweat from his forehead: "It's amazing. I know it's fake, but I'm still a little nervous. It's probably been a long time since I flew a plane. When I encountered such a scene, I was really caught off guard. We made preparations in advance. , but even you couldn’t save the plane. It’s too fast, its height is not high, and there are mountains on the ground, crashing is inevitable.”
Soon, the door of the simulator opened, and ATR technicians sent the flight data report.
On the A4 paper, several data broken lines reflect the aircraft's pitch attitude, roll attitude, etc. after the hydraulic system of the aircraft fails. Fucheng sighed, and handed the information to Old Joseph.
five minutes later.
The calm voice of the black-haired young man sounded: "... Martha 123 Aviation, permission to take off. The target of the second experiment, the wing is damaged."
boom! boom! boom!
Repeating the experiment again and again, Fucheng thought of all the causes of the air crash he could think of, and went to simulate the flight test, hoping to get a roll attitude curve similar to that of Martha 123 Aviation. Unfortunately, however, he tried seven possible causes of the accident and none of them yielded similar results.
After taking off the earphones and unfastening the seat belts, the two left the simulator.
After a whole afternoon of simulated flight, Old Joseph couldn't help but feel tired. "We have tried to account for all possible causes of the failure, but we still haven't gotten a satisfactory result. It seems that there is no doubt that this wonderful and unreasonable roll attitude is the cause of the crash of the plane."
Fucheng was looking at the data of the last test flight, his eyes stayed on the curve that was smooth but smooth for a long time.
"Volt? Volt? What's wrong?"
The next moment, as if waking up from a dream, Fucheng suddenly turned his head to look at Old Joseph. His eyes were burning: "All our actions just now are to restore the behavior of the two pilots, right, old Joseph."
Old Joseph didn't understand what he wanted to say: "Ah, yes. The last operations of the two pilots are recorded in the black box, and the found rudder also proves that the two have always wanted to save the plane. We will follow their actions. So what?"
Fushiro: "The captain has been working hard to put the rod, and the co-pilot joined him in the end. But until the end, their efforts were recorded by the black box, admitting that they have made these. It may not be the best but it must not be the best. Wrong operation. But now we really follow their operation, the plane will still crash, but it will not cause such a terrible roll attitude... "
The voice stopped, as if seeing the fleeting ray of light in the dark night.
At the ATR headquarters, the world's top pilots took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He said in a firm and unquestionable tone: "If the pilot of an aircraft has made improvements to it, it still rolls violently in the air with an irresistible force and finally crashes. That can only prove one reason …”
Old Joseph was so blessed: "You mean that the hydraulic system failed and the pilot couldn't control the plane?" As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately denied it himself, "Impossible. The data on the black box proves that the hydraulic system has absolutely not failed completely."
"Probably not the hydraulics."
"Um?"
"No matter how much the pilots try to improve the flight attitude, it's useless, because the terminal of all their actions... the tail, there is a problem."
Old Joseph froze for a moment.
Fu Cheng has already pulled out his mobile phone and called Zhuo Huan. Strangely, he just dialed the phone, and Zhuo Huan connected the next second. The man's slightly hoarse voice came through the sound hole, mixed with a trace of electrical noise: "Hello."
Fu Cheng: "Mr. Zhuo, how is the rear wing of Martha 123 put together? I suggest checking its tail immediately. I suspect that there is a problem with the rudder on the tail."
There was a moment of silence on the phone.
Fucheng was surprised, and was about to speak, when he heard Gao Yun's voice from the other end: "Mr. Zhuo, I didn't find it. Is it still on the mountain? The plane was too shattered, maybe after the tail part was smashed, , fell into a ravine, got stuck in any hole, it’s all possible.”
His eyes widened slightly, and Fu Cheng's lips moved. He seemed to hear the man's exhalation, across thousands of miles, as if in his ears.
Zhuo Huan said to Gao Yun: "No, it's definitely the tail wing failure. Now it is suspected that the tail wing is broken. On the way from Zurich Airport to Schaffhausen, immediately look for the tail wing along the way."
Gao Yun: "Yes!"
Zhuohuan: "Fucheng."
"… Um?"
Zhuo Huan: "Five minutes ago, after the plane was spliced to the tail part, it was found that there were no suitable pieces. Maybe it wasn't the rudder on the tail that failed, but this plane... its tail fell off."
Fucheng suddenly didn't know what to say, there was ten seconds of silence on the phone.
"How did you figure it out?"
Fucheng was silent, "That strange roll attitude curve. Any pilot, unless he intentionally wants to crash the plane, will never let a plane make that kind of roll in the air, as if the pilot didn't do it. like any effort."
Zhuo Huan was stunned, this answer was beyond his expectation, this is not his domain.
The dawn of victory has almost been seen, and the boulder weighing on his heart has disappeared. Fucheng and Old Joseph walked out the door together, and he said casually, "Maybe it's... the pilot's intuition?"
On the other side of the phone, Zhuo Huan curled up his lips, said something softly, and then hung up the phone.
The phone was hung up suddenly, Fucheng was a little surprised, he looked at the blackened phone screen.
Old Joseph: "Reid found that the tail was missing? What is this called? It took a month after the accident and we found out that the tail was gone! If the plane hadn't been smashed too badly, there would be such an incredible stupid mistake? Suppose If I want to make documentaries in the future, such as Holocaust in the Air, I don’t want to be interviewed, it’s too embarrassing.”
Fucheng gave a soft "hmm", he remembered something, raised his head and said: "Old Joseph, you have worked hard, come with me."
Old Joseph waved his hand, laughed and said, "I think this is much more interesting than flying planes."
Fucheng stretched out his hand: "Good job!"
Old Joseph gave him a high five: "Good job!"
***
On November 19, 2020, after a 21-day carpet search, the search team finally found the broken tail of Martha 123 in a mountain depression.
It fell from 15,000 feet without suffering the crushing impact of the rest of the plane, and remained almost intact.
Schaffhausen, the door of the investigation headquarters.
Zhuo Huan led the five UAAG members and stood beside the Rhine Falls, waiting for the helicopter to send the tail of the plane back with the fastest speed.
The helicopter's propeller churned the air with a deafening whine. Two steel cables hung a dark metal box below the helicopter, slowly lowering it to the ground. Five people from UAAG stepped forward, and the investigators quickly opened the box aside.
The warm winter sun reflected on the tail of the plane.
It's white with a red pattern, that's the emblem of Marsa Airlines.
Old Joseph whistled: "Wow, it's so well preserved. This is probably the most complete part of this plane?"
Zhuo Huan squatted down and looked at the rear wing with several cracks due to the fall from a high altitude. His eyes slid down the tip, and finally stopped on the few screws where the tail wing broke.
"It looks old."
Zhuo Huan raised his eyes and looked at the black-haired young man who also squatted down and looked at the tail wing seriously. He didn't try to imitate himself, he just really focused on observing the tail. After waiting for a long time without Zhuo Huan's answer, Fu Cheng was a little dazed, raised his head and said, "Teacher Zhuo?"
The Rhine Falls hides this clear sound in the roar of the rapids.
After a long while, Zhuo Huan raised the corners of his mouth and said with a sarcastic smile: "Hehe, old? It's not just old, the screw type is wrong, small! Go check it out." After speaking, he turned around and left, obviously very displeased with the result, even I don't like to wait a second longer.
Gao Yun didn't dare to say anything: "Small? This screw doesn't meet the specifications?!" He hurriedly called a few investigators, and said seriously, "Send the tail to EASA headquarters immediately, especially focusing on checking the screws."
"Yes!"
"Wait." Before the investigators were about to take the tail away, Gao Yun couldn't help but stop them. He followed Zhuo Huan's example just now, and squatted down to get a closer look at the screws: "How do you see how small they are? Can the naked eye see that the specifications of the screw are not correct? Is the human eye microscope... "
After hearing what he said, Lina burst out laughing, and the old Joseph beside him laughed too.
Su Fei also leaned over: "I'll take a look, I'll take a look. Hey, how do you see the problem?"
Fu Cheng stood up, and said as a matter of course: "Because he is Zhuo Huan."
Behind him, the man's steps paused for a moment, Zhuo Huan turned his head, his eyes flashed past the young man's slim back. After staring at it for a while, he turned around again and strode away.
Two days later, EASA's test results came out.
"The screws used for the tail of Martha 123 flight are No. 7 screws, which do not meet the specifications. The difference is almost invisible to the naked eye, but it is one model smaller than the original one. It seems that there is no doubt that when the plane climbs in the air, the small The No. 1 screw suddenly cracked due to long-term work. Therefore, after a few screws were missing, the tail wing could not bear the excessive tension, and it cracked and fell off." Gao Yun read out the inspection report given by EASA, "This It is the direct cause of the Martha 123 accident."
Su Fei raised his hand: "Why are the screws so small?"
Old Joseph: "That's another matter. The ground maintenance guy took the wrong screw?"
Zhuohuan: "Then why is it old?"
Fu Cheng looked at Zhuo Huan, he didn't expect that Zhuo Huan still remembered the question he asked casually before.
Gao Yun scratched his head: "Yes, this is also a problem. Even if the maintenance personnel took the wrong screw model and made a mistake, they should be replaced with new screws, not a row of such old ones."
Everyone thought again.
"What if, say, the screws were taken from another, older aircraft?"
Everyone raised their heads and looked at Fucheng together.
Fucheng pondered: "A leather bag company that has established cooperation with an airline company, flying passenger planes during the day and cargo planes at night, is doing its best to squeeze the pilots. Their air tickets are sold by Martha Airlines, and their airport access qualifications are Martha Airlines. Airline. You said," he looked at Zhuo Huan, "this bag company only owns one plane and two pilots. Then they naturally don't have dedicated maintenance personnel."
After a pause, he came to a conclusion: "The maintenance of their aircraft is handed over to others. Since it has been squeezed to this point, it seems natural to remove the screws from an old scrapped aircraft and use it for waste... .”
Zhuo Huan said calmly: "The tail screw of ATR42 is No. 7."
Fucheng looked at him in surprise.
Zhuo Huan: "I didn't say that these screws must have been removed from an ATR42. It's just that, among the ATR series aircraft, only the 42 uses the No. 7 screws. Mr. Gao, this is what EASA needs to investigate. Look up that purse company, look up what it is."
All the blame points to the mysterious leather bag company. Now that the investigation has reached its final stage, there is only one last step left.
The moon is in the middle of the sky, and the rapids are turbulent.
Lina walked out of the gate of the candy factory and saw her friend standing in front of the Rhine Falls. She walked up and wanted to say "Don't smoke Reid", but when she got closer, she was surprised to find that her friend didn't smoke!
Zhuohuan put his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker, looking down at the snow-white foam formed by the waterfall falling from a height.
"I'm in a better mood recently, and I don't think Gerald wants his friend to dwell on painful memories." Lina took out a piece of chewing gum from her small bag and handed it over: "But Reid, you don't smoke, really Surprising. Would you like a piece of gum?"
Zhuo Huan reached out to take it: "Thank you."
"What are you looking at?" Lina followed his gaze, but all she could see was water. "Is there anything special about this waterfall?"
"I'm thinking about something."
"Um?"
The air was silent, and for a long time, no one spoke.
Lina asked again: "Reid?"
Zhuo Huan chewed the gum with a calm voice, he blew a bubble of gum, and chewed it back slowly. Then, in an extremely light tone, as if casually said: "Fucheng seems to have a crush on me."
Lina: "..."
"Puff ha ha ha."
Zhuo Huan frowned slightly, and glanced at his friend.
funny
Lina laughed like this for the first time since losing her best friend two months ago. She couldn't bear it anymore, and even lost her image of a lady. Finally, she smiled tremblingly: "Reid, don't make me laugh. Although I just said that I will not continue to be sad, but you don't have to... you don't have to hahahahaha..."
It doesn't have to be.
Zhuo Huan snorted lightly.
Lina finally stopped laughing: "Are you serious?"
Uncle Zhuo chewed gum, blew a bubble, and ignored her.
Lina tried to be serious: "Ahem, there is something I have to tell you, Reid. I regard every member of UAAG as family and my most important partner. So after you decided on the list of members, I quietly investigated Each of them. Don't worry, I just investigated a little information and didn't violate any of their privacy rights."
"So?" Uncle Zhuo raised his eyelids.
"It stands to reason that I would not investigate Fu's family situation, let alone his romantic relationship. But because he was a top student since he was a child, the only demerit on his file was in high school, so I took a curious look. Do you know the reason for remembering it?"
Uncle Zhuo blows bubbles.
"When Fu was in the third year of high school, he had a relationship with the school belle of that school. The college entrance examination in Huaguo was approaching, and he fought with other classmates because of his girlfriend, so he was demerited." Pausing, Lina suddenly couldn't bear it. Hitting the handsome and proud face of his friend: "After the college entrance examination, the two broke up. As far as I know, he likes that girl very much. So..."
"Reid, Vol is not gay."
"Snapped-"
The bubbles of chewing gum burst suddenly and stuck to his lips.
"Ah."
Uncle Zhuo let out a disdainful snort, chewed his gum, turned and walked into the investigation headquarters.
The author has something to say:
Zhuo Anxi: Don't be afraid of what I'm going to say next!
Lina: Don't worry, Mr. Zhuo, I have received professional training and I will never be afraid.
Zhuo Anxi: There is a high probability that Fucheng has a crush on me! [Fu Chengcheng: Meow meow? ? ?]
Lina: Pfft.
Zhuo Anxi:? why are you laughing
Lina: Mr. Zhuo, I think of happy things.
Zhuo Anxi: What are you happy about
Lina: I have a friend who is so narcissistic hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...
---
For the convenience of reading, I handed over all the air crashes in Europe to EASA, and I didn’t write anything like AAIB, so as not to make you dizzy when you look at various abbreviations. In addition, this article assumes that McFly is one of the world's three largest aircraft manufacturers alongside Boeing and Airbus.
The prototypes of this air crash are MINX27100 flight and Japan Airlines flight 123. If you are interested, you can search for the documentary~