After a brief debriefing session, Lovins assigned the investigative task to his subordinates. He was about to follow them downstairs to the warehouse to check the clearance of the wreckage of the plane when someone tapped his shoulder from behind.
Lovins turned around: "Patrick?"
Zhuohuan put his hands in his pockets and raised his eyebrows at him. Lovins was taken aback for a moment, not understanding what he meant, then he looked over Zhuo Huan's shoulder and saw the black-haired young man standing behind him.
Lovins: "... Volt?"
Wait, what's going on here
"Could it be that there are some new discoveries, or are there some new tasks to be done?" His expression tightened.
Zhuo Huan turned his upper body, pointed in the direction of Lovins with his chin, and said to Fu Cheng, "I want to benefit from him."
Fucheng: "..."
Lovins: "...?" What? !
Uncle Zhuo has always done good deeds without leaving a name, he took a deep look at Fucheng, left a meaningful expression, turned and left. After he left, Fucheng and Lovins looked at each other. After a long time, Lovins: "V, I'm a little confused about the current situation, so what is the current situation?"
Fucheng smiled helplessly: "Mr. Zhuo was just joking, don't worry about it."
Lovins gradually tasted a hint of meaning.
Lovins is only in his early forties this year, but he is already a senior investigator of the NTSB and has an exclusive investigation team named after himself. He looked at Fu Cheng, and said apologetically, "Please tell me about that matter for me today, Fu, thank you very much."
Fu Cheng: "No, it's not a big deal."
Lovins smiled and said: "In short, you helped me solve a troublesome matter, I will keep it in my heart, thank you."
Fucheng thought for a while: "Actually, you can tell Mr. Zhuo yourself. I don't think Mr. Zhuo will be angry about this kind of thing. And even if you said it directly at the beginning, I think Mr. Zhuo will come to the United States .”
Lovins thought for a moment, thinking he understood Fucheng's meaning: "That's right, the disappearance of the black box doesn't necessarily mean that the truth cannot be found, it's just that it's extremely difficult. I should trust Patrick's ability."
Fu Cheng was taken aback for a moment, smiled, and didn't speak again.
When he came to the first floor, Fu Cheng stood on the stairs, when he reached the last two or three steps, Zhuo Huan raised his head and saw him.
Looking at each other, Uncle Zhuo raised his eyebrows: "Is it coming?"
Want to benefit
Fucheng nodded.
Zhuo Huan chuckled and looked away.
Fucheng walked to the first floor, and originally wanted to directly contact the air traffic controller on duty on the day of the crash, but he stopped inexplicably. His eyes stayed on Zhuo Huan's thin and tall back for a moment, as if suddenly returning to that summer night in Helsinki in a daze, this man was wearing a thin T-shirt, and walked in front without looking back.
Behind him, the punk boy dragged his suitcase and walked forward cursing.
The humid wind in summer is mixed with the smell of astringent and slightly bitter soil, and the moonlight is fresh and clear, illuminating the cold concrete path. He didn't know why, so he lifted his footsteps and followed. Since then, it has always followed.
… Um
His hair seems to be longer
Don't cut it
Suddenly returning to his senses, Fu Cheng frowned suspiciously, tilted his head and thought for a while, but couldn't figure it out, so he had to turn around and leave.
***
Logan International Airport is located east of Boston, not far from the NTSB's makeshift investigative headquarters.
Under the introduction of Lovins, Fucheng met the air traffic controller who was on duty that day.
This is a young guy with brown curly hair. In fact, most of the air controllers are young. It's a stressful and demanding job that requires a lot of energy and stamina.
For example, this air traffic controller needs to control the takeoff and landing of more than ten planes at the same time. When he works, he needs to use radar maps to know exactly the altitude and bearing of each plane, know where they want to go, and arrange a reasonable route for them. If there is a little mistake, it may cause unbearable consequences.
In 2002, a Russian airliner and a DHL cargo plane collided over the city of Uberlingen in southern Germany. The accident killed 71 people and no one survived. The crashed Russian passenger plane carried 45 Russian children traveling to Spain. On the night of the accident, countless families could not sleep at night and were in pain.
There are many reasons for this accident, but the negligence of the air traffic controller is definitely one of the indispensable major reasons. Even this air traffic controller has a lot of helplessness, the air crash is not his will. However, his negligence caused the destruction of countless families. This is a fact that cannot be ignored.
Two years later, the air traffic controller was also stabbed to death by a father who lost his children and was overwhelmed with grief.
When Fucheng saw the air traffic controller, he had returned to normal and was mentally stable. But when Fucheng mentioned the name American Airlines 4012, he remained silent for a long time, unable to smile again.
"It was 2:00 in the morning and I was on the night shift. I had been in charge of American Airlines 4012 for two and a half hours, and there was another hour... no, it was 50 minutes, and they were supposed to land at Logan Airport. That day was In the middle of the night, there weren't many planes, they didn't need to line up, and I had planned to let them land behind a Qantas. But at 2:13 in the morning, I found that their altitude suddenly dropped sharply on the radar map."
The air traffic controller licked his dry lips and looked at Fucheng: "You know, as I said just now, there are not many planes, so I found out as soon as they started to drop altitude, and I contacted them immediately. But no one Respond."
Fu Cheng: "I know, you said there are not many planes."
The air traffic controller nodded: "Yes. I called several times, but they didn't answer. Then, American Airlines 4012 disappeared from my radar map. I immediately made an emergency call and sent a helicopter to search. But that day It was late at night, and the search effect was very poor, and the plane could not be found in the first place."
Fu Cheng typed a line on the tablet computer that he carried with him. He raised his head and asked, "Did the American Airlines pilot say anything special to you before the accident? For example, it might be related to hijacking?"
"No. Our last contact was at 1:47 am. Everything was normal. I was contacted by Captain Kevin, who was in charge of the radio communication that day. I have sent the recording of the call to NTSB. Except for the work, he He only said one thing that wasn't very relevant to me."
Fu Cheng's eyes froze: "What are you talking about?"
"He asked me if Logan Airport was busy today," recalled the air traffic controller.
…
"This is American Airlines 4012, how many planes are on duty at Logan Airport today, Over. 』
"This is Boston, not many, you can land on time, Over. 』
…
Fucheng asked the air traffic controller carefully, trying to get some clues from him that might not be in the recording. For example, the mood of the pilot at that time, is it possible for the pilot to say something that hinted at him that something happened to the plane. However, he got nothing in the end.
Air traffic controller: "I didn't notice any problems during the call, everything was business-like, rigorous and fast."
Fucheng looked at the information organized on the computer, he nodded and stood up: "Thank you."
"You're welcome. Shall I see you off?"
When the two walked to the door, Fu Cheng stopped in his tracks, and he turned around: "By the way, I would like to ask again. I have listened to the tapes you submitted beforehand, because only the last hour was recorded, and the previous ones are all No record. The tape has only the captain's voice. Did you hear the first officer's voice?"
The air traffic controller was stunned, and he thought for a while: "It's like this. The captain was in charge of radar communication that day, so I would only communicate with the captain, not the co-pilot. This is the case in the industry. Every time we The calls were brief and I remember the general content, I did not speak to the co-pilot."
Fucheng nodded: "Okay, thank you."
Depart Logan International Airport and return to Investigation Headquarters.
As soon as Fucheng entered the gate, he saw workers using jacks to move some broken wreckage out of the door and onto the car.
Old Joseph was watching from the sidelines, and when he saw Fucheng coming, he waved.
Fu Cheng walked over: "What is this doing?"
Old Joseph smiled and said, "Send some of the fractures to the laboratory and check to see if there are any signs of explosion."
Fucheng immediately understood: "It is suspected that terrorists planted a bomb on the plane, and the bomb exploded in the air, causing the plane to crash?"
Old Joseph laughed, and was about to speak, when a cold voice sounded behind him.
"Without the black box, what else can we do? We can only start with the remains of the wreckage. The explosion of the bomb is the first reason to be ruled out." Zhuo Huan walked over, his eyes stayed on Old Joseph for a moment, and then looked at Fu Cheng: "I found something, come and have a look."
Fu Cheng was surprised: "Me?"
"Um."
Fu Cheng and Old Joseph followed Zhuo Huan into the warehouse. They bypassed the scattered debris of various aircraft all the way, and came to the cabin of the aircraft.
The wreckage of American Airlines 4012 is almost complete.
Except for a part of the machine body that was washed away by the ocean current, the other parts were not subjected to too much impact and remained intact. Now they were standing in front of the wreckage of the left wing of the plane, and Fucheng looked down. At this moment, the huge left wing seemed to be broken in reverse, lying on the ground in a distorted posture.
Zhuo Huan squatted down, and Fu Cheng also squatted down.
"Look here." Zhuo Huan pointed to a scratch on the tip of the left wing of the plane, "This scratch is half a meter long, and at the end of the scratch is a gap three meters long. The iron sheet on the surface rolled out, The entire left wing is nearly snapped off. You've flown the A390, and judging by you...how do you think this happened?"
Hearing this, Fu Cheng looked awe-inspiring, and he looked at it carefully.
"This is the wingtip. The damage that only scratches but does not break should be caused by friction on the solid surface. However, the A390 crashed in the sea and did not rub against the ground. It stands to reason that the wingtip From the moment it touched the sea surface, the surface tension of the sea water was destroyed, and soon the plane crashed." After a pause, Fu Chengdao said, "But this scratch is the result of the wing tip rubbing on the sea surface for a period of time. Caused. And looking back..."
Zhuo Huan subconsciously looked in the direction of his fingers, Fu Cheng stretched out his hand to the right, and his right hand just happened to pass by his eyes. The extremely close distance made Zhuo Huan stunned, until the thin and slender hand fell down, Zhuo Huan still hadn't reacted.
Fu Cheng didn't notice Zhuo Huan's distraction, and he went on to say: "Behind this scratch, there is a large section of cracks and broken marks. Obviously, this should be the left wing that first touched the water surface, so it was caught by the huge surface of the water surface." The tension breaks, resulting in a rift."
Suddenly stunned, Fu Cheng raised his head: "Mr. Zhuo, do you want to say that this plane flew sideways and entered water?"
If it didn't fly sideways and fall into the sea, then the belly of the aircraft should be the first to touch the water, not the left wing!
Zhuo Huan came back to his senses, he raised his eyes and glanced at Fucheng, his voice was loose, as if he was not very focused: "Well, my inference is the same, you know a lot about A390, so I'll let you take a look."
Slowly concentrating, Zhuo Huan: "Since you also deduced the same way, then it is confirmed now—American Airlines 4012, an unexpected flip has occurred in the air. Besides, you can look at this." Saying, He raised his head and said to Old Joseph, "Look at it too."
Old Joseph also squatted down.
The three looked at the crack together.
Zhuo Huan's beautiful and clean fingers slid over the long crack of the plane: "The farther back the crack is, the bigger the crack will be. This is in line with the law of fracture force of alloys, but I feel... a bit problematic with this opening."
The author has something to say:
Fu Chengcheng: [staring at Xiao Yao and distracted]
Zhuo Anxi: You see, he has been staring at me for so long. I don't need to tell you why, right
---------------
The Uberlingen air crash was really tragic, and it was one of the most regrettable air crashes I felt.