UAAG Air Crash Investigation Team

Chapter 88

Views:

Most of the underwater salvage projects are dedicated to salvaging sunken ships.

Since the Age of Discovery, there have been countless shipwrecks sunk in the ocean. Even in modern times, it is not uncommon for ships to sink. What salvage companies really do and are good at is salvaging sunken ships, not airplanes. However, there is not much difference between an airplane and a ship, and sometimes an airplane is better salvaged than a sunken ship.

"Maifei F485, the length of this aircraft is 64.1 meters. According to the three-dimensional acoustic scanning conducted by sonar, it is determined that the aircraft is broken into two pieces, one is about 47 meters, and the other is about 17 meters. It is not very difficult to salvage the 47-meter-long plane wreckage at a depth of 1.5 meters, it only takes time and money.” Lawrence seriously analyzed the current situation, “But the problem is that there is a not-so-small reef area under this bay. "

Lawrence pointed to the black-and-white image scanned by the sonar, with a serious expression on his face.

Everyone also looked at the sonar map carefully.

The sinking of planes and ships in the sea does not mean that they stop directly on the seabed level and are visible to the naked eye. Most of the time, they passed through the thick layer of mud and sand, sank little by little, and finally were wrapped in mud and sand, living in the boundless darkness.

Rogge 318 is no exception. It lies quietly in a seabed of sand and is surrounded by soft sand. But on it, it was as if a cliff had grown horizontally, suddenly blocking a large piece of reef, blocking the top of Rogge 318.

According to common sense, if Rogge 318 sank from directly above, it should land on this reef, not in the sediment layer under the reef. But it just crossed the reef blocking the sand and got into the sand.

Old Joseph: "The movement of ocean currents is really amazing. Even if human beings manually want to stuff this huge plane under the reef, it may be difficult to do it."

Yes, it is difficult for humans to do this, but nature has done it.

Lawrence sighed, and looked at Zhuo Huan seriously: "So, Reid, what should I do. I have already shipped the world's most advanced salvage equipment here, but I can't guarantee that they will work."

Zhuo Huan quietly looked at the blurry and complicated image on the computer screen. After a while, he turned to Lina and said, "Help me contact Robert Gatsby, Stephen Keskin, Joanna Douglas..." He said a dozen English names and one Chinese name in a row, and finally he paused After a pause, he added: "There is also Tsuna Teiichi."

The news of Rogge 318 reappearing has just been reported by the news media, spread all over the world, and attracted widespread attention from people all over the world. Just three days later, at the press conference of UAAG, they were told a cruel news—

The salvage of Rogge 318 is extremely difficult, and it may take three months, half a year, or even longer to salvage it completely from the seabed.

World-renowned shipwreck salvage experts and many physicists were invited to participate in the salvage plan of Rogge 318.

At present, the common sunken ship salvage methods are mainly the buoy method, floating crane method and chain salvage method. Among them, chain salvage is suitable for wrecks with large tonnage, short length and not very deep water depth, which can just be used to salvage Rogge 318. But the problem is that the Rogge 318 is blocked by a reef. If the simple chain salvage method is used, it is very likely to damage the aircraft structure.

In this regard, Zhuo Huan made a unified decision: "Use the buoy method."

If you want to fish out the Rogge 318 completely, you must use the buoy method. The method sounds not difficult. It is to build a huge box on the seabed, and completely pack the wreckage of the plane, the sand and reefs around it into the box. Afterwards, nearly a hundred hooks were used to directly salvage the box, and the plane was pulled up together with the surrounding sand and stones.

But the problem is, this is under 33 meters of water.

Any accident can happen.

When everyone was overwhelmed and searching for various materials to salvage Rogge 318, Su Fei found Zhuo Huan. The punk boy looked solemn and said, "Get the black box first."

After saying this, Zhuo Huan looked up at him.

After a while, Zhuo Huan snorted softly: "Huh?"

Su Fei said seriously: "In 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. It took two years until 2011 before the French Civil Aviation Safety Agency found its wreckage on the seabed at a depth of 3,000 meters. Mi, it is impossible for this plane to be fished up, but they finally recovered two black boxes. The most important thing in an air crash investigation is the black box. Fish it up first."

Zhuo Huan didn't speak.

After a few seconds, the punk boy complained: "Hey, I'm serious with you, RIP, give me a response."

Zhuo Huan looked at him calmly: "Do you know why Fu Cheng is not here?"

Su Fei was taken aback: "What?"

Zhuo Huan: "You haven't seen him for a few days."

After such a reminder, Su Fei remembered: "That's right, I haven't seen Brother Fu for four or five days. Why did he go?"

Zhuo Huan raised his eyes and glanced at him, then looked down at his fingertips. He turned the pen gently, and said flatly: "He went to get you the black box."

Su Fei: "..."

Fuck? !

Su Fei never expected that Fucheng, as a former air force pilot, would go into the sea to find the black box!

But don't talk about him, in fact, before this time, Fucheng didn't know that he still had such abilities.

What Su Fei thought of, Zhuo Huan thought of it from the very beginning.

At 33 metres, that's an incredibly benevolent depth.

Human divers can go directly to this location to explore the aircraft itself. But because Rogge 318 was surrounded by mud and sand, the exploration work was not smooth.

Unlike Air France 447, which was buried three thousand meters below the seabed, where it is impossible for humans to reach, it can only be salvaged by machinery in the end. The water depth of the Rogge 318 is only 33 meters, and divers can directly remove the black box from the aircraft and even carry it back.

There is no need for Fucheng to go for training and dive for this kind of thing.

But Fucheng made this request on his own initiative.

For one thing, he used to be an Air Force pilot, and his physical fitness even surpassed that of many divers. He can fully dive and work, and he only needs to receive certain diving training. Secondly, he knows this plane better than all the divers. His understanding of Mai Fei F485 is definitely not as good as Zhuo Huan, but it must be deeper than Old Joseph, Su Fei and others.

In the past five years, he has consulted the information of McFly F485 countless times. Every item of its basic data, its performance specifications, and all the information that can be queried, he read it over and over again in the middle of the night, reading every word in his heart.

So a week ago, Fu Cheng said to Zhuo Huan: "If there is an accident when salvaging the plane and destroys the wreckage, it may destroy the investigation evidence."

Zhuo Huan: "Let the divers take a camera to take pictures underwater."

Fu Cheng: "That's the bottom of the sea, there is no light, and it is difficult to take pictures, and it must be very slow."

Zhuo Huan looked at him steadily, raised his eyebrows slowly: "So?"

Fucheng looked back firmly: "I'll go down. I'll take out the black box, it's just the simplest thing. The real important thing is, let me see if there is any problem with this plane. I will be your eyes , except you, no one here knows this plane better than me, and I know best what's different about it."

Thus, Fucheng began to receive diving training. What he has to do is not only to bring back the black box, but also to see the sunken plane on the bottom of the sea with his own eyes.

On December 3, 2021, the wind was biting, and the winter in Unalaska came suddenly. Overnight, it plummeted five degrees. There was a snowfall on the beach, and a speedboat set sail from the pier, and arrived at the salvage site of Rogge 318 half an hour later.

The boat stopped in the middle of the sea, rising and falling with the waves.

On the deck, Fucheng put on his diving suit, carrying an air pipe, emergency gas cylinder, and waist lead. After checking all the equipment, he exchanged a glance with the diver beside him.

Under the bright sun, four divers wearing diving suits and full equipment put on light helmets and masks. They kicked hard on the side of the ship with their legs hard, drawing a long and narrow arc in the air. Amidst the rumbling machinery, the four figures jumped into the sea and sneaked down little by little.

The diving mission this time was in charge of Mr. Nicola from the salvage company. He used to be an excellent diver with many years of diving and salvage experience.

The moment he jumped into the sea, the surrounding noises suddenly disappeared.

Buzz.

The world is quiet.

Fucheng was stunned for a moment, and soon Mr. Nicholas' voice came from his communication phone. He collected himself and dived down with the other three divers.

The depth of 33 meters is insignificant to these divers. Soon, maybe only a few minutes, maybe ten minutes, they crossed the reef area and came to the sediment layer.

In the darkness, the lights on the helmets were on, illuminating each other's faces.

The four took out professional tools and started deep diving.

Break open the soft sand layer, keep going down, down again.

In the dark deep sea, Fucheng heard someone exhaling in a low voice as if in the air pipe. It was his breath, and in one thin tube was his whole voice. There was no other sound, and Mr. Nicholas did not speak on the phone.

Wherever the overhead light shines, it is on.

They are like deep-sea anglers, silently parading in the suffocating darkness, listening to their own slow and powerful heartbeat.

Fucheng's heart gradually calmed down. He hasn't seen Rogge 318 yet, but according to the distance down, they are almost there.

His eyes searched around in this darkness, his heartbeat seemed to speed up, his breathing gradually became faster, and his back was tense.

"Hey, I found it, come here quickly."

A diver shouted on the phone, and Fu Cheng suddenly turned his head to look at the person who spoke. It was an American guy with brown hair. He confirmed that he had found the wreckage of the plane, so he turned on the headlight he carried with him, turned it on, and shone to his side.

"Look at it!"

The heart has already been beating to the fastest speed, the body seems to be grabbed by someone forcefully, and the breathing is about to stop.

Fu Cheng raised his head and looked at the place illuminated by the lights.

In the dark deep sea, where the water was rippling, a huge and eerie giant building was floating silently between the sand and sand. It is like a tall castle, majestic and majestic, the lighting only illuminates one corner of it, and at the edge of the light is its huge body hidden in the sea water.

A name sounded in everyone's heart.

Rogue 318.

The moment he saw it, Fucheng suddenly calmed down.

There is no intense grief as imagined, nor the sadness that I thought I would have. He was extremely calm, even beyond his own imagination. He took a deep look at the plane, then lowered his head and turned on the communication phone, saying word by word: "It is confirmed that it is Rogge 318, and began to search for the black box, over."

***

Maifei F485 is currently one of the largest wide-body civil aviation airliners in the world. If you want to find its black box on land, it is not difficult. It can be removed in ten minutes in Fucheng. But this is under the sea.

After searching for four days in a row, on the fifth day, Fucheng finally brought it back from the sea.

Finally completed the first phase of the task, the divers lay on the deck, cheering and whistling. Fucheng was also lying on the cold deck, he couldn't hide the joy in his heart, he didn't stand up until he was almost rested, and walked towards the orange-red black box.

At this moment, Fucheng didn't know that a familiar old friend had come to the temporary salvage headquarters in Unalaska.

Zhuo Huan was having a video conference with Professor Robert, Tsuna Teiichi and others, when Lina knocked on his door.

Zhuo Huan frowned impatiently: "What's the matter?"

Lina smiled helplessly, "Maybe you should come out yourself, Reid."

Zhuohuan: "Huh?"

Lina shrugged and was about to speak again when a cold hum sounded from behind her.

Zhuo Huan's face darkened.

An old man with white hair came out from behind Lina. He pushed open the door of the conference room, but didn't come in. Instead, he stood at the door and looked at his students from afar.

Thor Reiner: "Reid, where is Rogue 318?"

Zhuo Huan looked at him steadfastly, and after a few seconds, he leaned back on the back of the chair and smiled: "Hai Li."

Mr. Rainer glanced at him coldly, and said in a cold and dignified voice, "We want it."