Legendary Captain

Chapter 107 Sulfur (Please subscribe!)

The flight attendant was meticulous; her actions with the other flight attendants were clearly inappropriate. However, by offering a free upgrade, she could both appease the passengers' anger and also have other plans of her own.

Although she hadn't found anything wrong with the restroom during her inspection, she felt it was necessary to add the male passenger to her list of people to watch out for, just to be on the safe side.

First class is the least crowded area in the entire cabin, so even if there are any illegal acts, there is still room to react. In economy class, on the other hand, people are packed together, and there is simply no time to react to any dangerous behavior.

Furthermore, first class has dedicated security personnel, and it's also close to the cabin crew lounge, where flight attendants can provide assistance at any time. In short, this seemingly unexpected free upgrade not only compensates for their earlier rudeness but also indirectly puts the person under the crew's scrutiny.

Kill two birds with one stone!

In today's society, human rights awareness is very strong, and any form of control needs to be treated with caution, especially given the public's doubts about whether security personnel on airplanes have the authority to exercise control.

More importantly, all the actions were based solely on the crew's speculation, without any substantial evidence. Such actions, if exposed, would inevitably draw criticism. At this point, the purser's handling of the situation proved to be impeccable.

As the male passenger turned around, the flight attendant took two steps back to the rear cabin crew and said in a very low voice, "Notify the front cabin to clear out a two-seat area in first class."

For most 737 economy class cabins, the layout is typically six seats per row, three on the left and three on the right, forming two three-seat pairs. First class usually has two seats on the left and two on the right, forming two two-seat pairs. The aisle seats were all full, while the window seats were relatively empty. The purser suggested that the cabin crew in the front rearview mirror rearrange the first-class passengers to create a two-seat pair for the male passenger, thus separating the two areas.

After the flight attendant finished giving instructions and turned around, she saw the male passenger from before covering his mouth and nose, frowning: "What's that smell?"

It's possible that the doors and windows of the restroom blocked out the outside world, which is why the male passenger didn't smell the smoke outside at first. But as soon as he came out, his mouth and nose were filled with a pungent odor.

Suddenly, it felt as if something was stirring inside the chest and trachea, and the person took a deep breath. This caused more odorous air to rush into the trachea, further irritating it and triggering a violent cough.

After coughing, there was a continuous wheezing sound, each breath like that of a drowning person just surfacing, craving fresh air.

"Medicine! Give me my medicine!" The man's eyes were filled with terror. He covered his chest with one hand and his mouth and nose with the other. The irritating gas from the outside had caused his chronic illness to relapse.

The flight attendant's eyes were filled with horror, because the man's symptoms were too frightening, as if he might not be able to breathe again at any moment.

"Asthma!?" The flight attendant immediately identified the man's problem. The man was making a bellows-like sound in his chest, which anyone with a little common sense could tell.

"Medicine? Medicine!" The flight attendant immediately ran to the man's side and asked, "Where's the medicine? Wait, what's your seat number?"

"38B, blue backpack!" The man uttered a few key pieces of information haltingly, with a few white foams appearing at his mouth as he spoke.

In this situation, if saliva blocks the already spasming trachea, it could lead to suffocation.

Knowing the situation was urgent, the flight attendant immediately followed the information provided by the man and rushed to row 38.

As they ran quickly down the corridor, some curious passengers twisted their necks, turned around, and craned their necks to look behind them. Some even got up, left their seats, and walked closer to see what was going on.

No matter the time, there will always be people watching the spectacle.

"All passengers, take your positions! No moving around!" the flight attendant shouted suddenly. At this critical moment, there was no time to deal with the situation as passengers were already standing in the middle of the aisle.

The passengers saw that the flight attendant had only given a verbal warning and then walked past the person without taking any further action. They assumed it wasn't anything serious and didn't take it seriously. They had no intention of going back and even wanted to go closer to take a look.

However, after the flight attendant passed by, the security officer appeared right behind them, blocking the passengers' path like an iron tower.

"In special circumstances, please follow our instructions and return to your seat." The security officer's voice was like the clash of metal, filled with an unquestionable firmness.

The busybody was somewhat outmatched but unwilling to back down, and felt it would be a loss of face to back down now, so he persisted, saying, "I'm not doing anything, I'll just watch."

The security guard's face twitched slightly. These kinds of people were the most annoying. Under normal circumstances, a little discipline would suffice. However, in public, it was really inconvenient to be too forceful. If some "moral saints" seized the opportunity to take things out of context and accuse Chimelong Airlines of bullying the weak, it would be a nightmare to spread rumors and then run around like crazy trying to dispel them.

By this time, the flight attendant had arrived at row 38. She scanned the area in front of seat 38B but did not spot any blue backpack.

That means it's on the luggage rack!

The flight attendant opened the overhead luggage compartment and immediately spotted the blue bag the male passenger had mentioned. After taking it out and rummaging through it briefly, she found something that looked like a respirator in a small pocket inside.

Based on her limited medical knowledge, the flight attendant determined that this must be the medication for asthma.

Upon closer inspection, the bottle packaging reads "Shu Chuan Ling" (蜀喘灵), and a quick scan of the indications reveals it's primarily for patients with bronchial asthma, wheezing bronchitis, or emphysema.

This is it!

She gripped the spray in one hand and grabbed the bag with the other, just in case there was any other medicine she didn't know about, so as not to waste time running back and forth.

However, when she turned back, the flight attendant discovered that the passenger who had been standing in the middle of the aisle had not gone back and was still arguing with the security officer.

"I just felt uncomfortable sitting down, and I couldn't even stand up and stretch my muscles?" the well-meaning passenger continued to argue.

The security officer wanted to patiently say a few more words to him, but then the purser whizzed past them, leaving only the purser's somewhat cold and hard voice: "Write down his information, report it to the authorities and the airline association, and put him on the industry blacklist."

The flight attendant looked delicate and frail, but her voice was louder than most men's. What's the point of talking to someone so dim-witted? Just blacklist her from the industry.

The security officer had long since lost his patience. With the purser's instructions, he wasn't going to waste any more words with this person. He immediately turned on his body camera: "These are special times. If you don't comply with our requirements, we will report you to the authorities and the airline association as required, and put you on the industry blacklist, restricting your future air travel."

This ultimatum-like tone successfully intimidated the curious passengers.

"Can't you speak properly? All you do is scare people?" The well-meaning passenger muttered a few words, but in the end, he still obediently returned to his seat.

Hearing what the man said, the safety officer was already cursing him in his heart. It's useless to talk to this kind of person nicely; you have to scare him. To put it bluntly, he just needs to be taught a lesson.

The flight attendant made her way to the rear cabin and handed the inhaler to the man who had asthma. The man grasped it like a lifeline, took the inhaler with both hands, and inhaled it deeply several times.

This aerosol has a rapid effect in relieving asthma and spasms; after just a few inhalations, the man's symptoms were significantly reduced. After a while, the man was completely back to normal.

"What is this thing? Is it smoke? Why is there smoke on an airplane?" The man, supported by a flight attendant, was still a little disoriented from breathing heavily. "No, this doesn't look like smoke. Smoke is this pungent!"

His asthma wasn't severe and hadn't flared up for a long time. Even during casual social gatherings, where the air was thick with the smoke of many people smoking, his asthma wouldn't be triggered. But in this very situation, just stepping out of the restroom and exhaling some fresh air caused his asthma to flare up immediately—the irritation was just too intense.

Fortunately, he was always cautious, and even though he hadn't had an asthma attack in a long time, he still carried his medication with him, just in case. If he had been careless, he might very well be dead here today.

"We're looking for the cause too," the flight attendant said apologetically. "Number four, please take him to first class and then get the oxygen cylinder!"

The flight attendant, knowing the passenger's history of asthma, dared not let him breathe the cabin air any longer. She immediately instructed flight attendant number four to fetch a portable oxygen cylinder. It was best for this passenger to use oxygen!

However, portable oxygen cylinders are ultimately limited in number and have a limited lifespan. If the source of the "smoke" cannot be found, they are only a temporary remedy.

Looking from the rear cabin, the unidentified smoke became increasingly noticeable. It accumulated most prominently on the cabin ceiling, making the entire cabin resemble a sauna.

In fact, quite a few other passengers have started coughing.

Xu Xian witnessed the flight attendant and security officer going to the rear cabin to check the lavatory, and the passenger suffering an asthma attack on the spot, almost dying.

Initially, there was only a slight odor in the cabin, but now there is visible smoke in the air. To the naked eye, this smoke is indistinguishable from the smoke emitted after a fire. However, the smell is completely different.

Inhaling ordinary smoke might at most cause a slight choking sensation, or make your eyes water.

However, when the smoke was inhaled, it only caused a burning sensation in the chest. Moreover, upon closer inspection, the smoke had a peculiar odor, which Xu Xian couldn't immediately recall.

Based on the actions of the flight attendant and security officer, the problem doesn't seem to be in the lavatory. So where is this smoke coming from? If this continues, who can breathe in this environment?

At this point, even Xu Xian himself had to cover his mouth and nose with his clothes to slightly alleviate the problem of the pungent air.

Xu Xian scanned the luggage racks in the front and rear cabins but did not see any obvious source of smoke infiltration. To be precise, the source of the smoke could not be found in the entire cabin.

The smoke seemed to appear out of thin air, completely baffling people!

Where did this strange thing come from?

Xu Xian was almost certain this wasn't a fire alarm. The most likely cause of this scale of smoke was a fire in the cargo hold, which then seeped into the passenger cabin through floor gaps. In that case, a relatively obvious source of smoke should have been found in the gaps in the passenger cabin floor. Furthermore, if it were a cargo hold fire, the passenger cabin floor would have heated up, causing an unusual temperature rise throughout the cabin. But so far, none of this had occurred.

"Why hasn't the cockpit taken any action even now? Even if they don't understand what happened, shouldn't they be considering an emergency landing?" Xu Xian thought to himself.

As a pilot, he never believed that pilots were omnipotent. There are also malfunctions that pilots cannot understand, and he even felt that even if the aircraft's designer were on board, he couldn't guarantee they could identify every fault. No one dared to guarantee a clear and accurate diagnosis of the source of any malfunction in this aircraft, which is composed of numerous precision parts.

Boeing has never recommended a principle of simply trying to fix aircraft malfunctions.

In the aerial environment, the lack of spare parts and the challenging working conditions mean that, in many cases, pilots are unable to repair malfunctions. Therefore, the proper approach to malfunctions should be to repair what can be repaired, and isolate what cannot be repaired.

For example, when dealing with a component overheating issue, the checklist might recommend raising the temperature to reduce the component's load and allow it to cool down. However, if this doesn't work, then the faulty component should be shut down, rather than simply trying to fix the overheating problem.

Of course, the checklist will then specify how to operate under single-component conditions.

Xu Xian felt that even if the cause of the unexplained smoke was unknown, the crew should prepare for an emergency landing as soon as possible, rather than doing nothing.

If we can't figure out the reason, we'll just make an emergency landing! We're not flying anymore, who cares what the reason is? Staying in the air always carries risks, isn't it better to stay grounded?

However, since he wasn't in the cockpit, he didn't know the exact situation of the aircraft; the crew might have their own considerations. But if the situation continued to deteriorate, he felt it necessary to ask the cabin crew about their intentions.

Although the two people in front were piloting the plane, his life was his own, and he couldn't just carelessly hand it over.

The flight attendant handed the male passenger who had just had an asthma attack to flight attendant number four, asking her to take him to the first-class cabin, while she herself rushed to the rear cabin telephone to contact the cockpit.

Inside the cockpit, Chen Qi covered his mouth and nose with a wet towel, as did the old instructor. Like the passenger cabin, the cockpit was now filled with smoke.

"Why is there smoke in the cockpit too?" Chen Qi asked angrily!

When the odor first appeared, the flight attendant in the passenger cabin noticed it, confirmed it, and informed the cockpit. At that time, Chen Qi was also confirming the odor. With both sides agreeing, the veteran instructor also agreed with Chen Qi's assessment.

Initially, Chen Qi and the veteran instructor suspected someone was smoking in the lavatory, and the smoke spread throughout the passenger cabin, eventually seeping into the cockpit. After all, the cabin is a relatively enclosed environment, and if someone smokes, the smoke can quickly permeate the entire cabin.

There's also the possibility that someone might deliberately sabotage the place! Based on this judgment, the senior instructor was able to take necessary measures when instructing the flight attendant to inspect the lavatory.

However, as time went on, Chen Qi and the old instructor realized that something was wrong.

Even after they turned off the recirculation fan, the smoke in the cockpit continued to intensify.

Logically speaking, if the recirculation fan were turned off, it should be difficult for smoke from the passenger cabin to enter the cockpit. However, the reality is that even in the cockpit, the air was still extremely pungent.

"Maybe...maybe there's a problem with the components?" The old instructor said, coughing violently.

He was already old, and his respiratory system was much weaker than that of a young person. After being exposed to the odor, he developed a severe cough, so severe that he felt as if he were coughing up his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.

"Possibly?" Chen Qi was furious. "Aren't you supposed to be an instructor? You've been flying for so many years, and you can't even diagnose a simple malfunction?"

At this moment, the old instructor was unable to answer Chen Qi's question. His violent cough made him feel dizzy and he couldn't even hear what Chen Qi was saying clearly.

Chen Qi completely ignored the veteran instructor's condition and continued to question him. He felt that the company paid these captains and instructors so much money every year, yet when problems arose, they couldn't solve them at all—what were they if not useless?

Suddenly, the cabin intercom rang. Chen Qi glanced at the old instructor who was still coughing violently, and reluctantly answered the phone: "What's going on?"

"I just checked the lavatory, and everything is normal!" the purser reported. "However, the smoke in the cabin is getting worse, triggering an asthma attack in a passenger, but it's been dealt with now. I've had flight attendant number four provide him with oxygen. Could you tell me what caused this? The smoke in the cabin is now clearly visible!"

Even the flight attendant, who had no flying experience, sensed that the situation was getting out of control, and she desperately wanted an explanation from the cockpit. After all, only the two people at the front of the plane were professionals. Even knowing the cause of the smoke would be helpful; these kinds of unclear situations were the most frightening!

Little did she know that the cockpit, which the flight attendant considered her only hope, gave her an answer she never expected.

"How the hell should I know?" Chen Qi roared, his voice filled with dissatisfaction and rage. "Prepare for descent! We're about to make an emergency landing!"

Even if Chen Qi is a complete idiot, it would be strange if he could fly down when surrounded by smoke of unknown origin.

After announcing the decision to make an emergency landing, Chen Qi rudely hung up the purser's phone. He glanced at the incompetent old instructor and said resentfully, "A useless captain and a useless purser who only knows how to ask 'why'—I'll fire you both later!"

What is Chen Qi's status? When he was on a flight, when did he ever cause Chen Qi any trouble? Now that a problem has arisen, no one can be relied upon, and it's Chen Qi who has to handle it. It's as if he's been supporting a bunch of good-for-nothings.

Given the current situation, even if we don't know the reason, we should at least lower the altitude first. When we conduct the smoke inspection, we may need to shut down two components.

If the components are turned off, wouldn't the pressure be released at such a high altitude?

As for whether or not to conduct an emergency landing later, Chen Qi believes that based on the current situation, it is highly likely that an emergency landing will be necessary.

Just as Chen Qi was about to contact air traffic control and request a descent, he caught a glimpse of the scene outside the windshield, and his finger, which was pressing the call button, suddenly stopped.

Then, he glanced down at the navigation screen. According to the weather radar, there was absolutely no weather ahead. However, outside the windshield, it looked like they were entering a cloud formation.

"Look, we've entered the clouds? Aren't we at an altitude of 38,000 feet? How come there are clouds like this?" Chen Qi murmured.

Clearly, Chen Qi was speaking to the old instructor. However, the old instructor was coughing so severely that his breathing was disrupted, and he was already delirious, so he was in no condition to answer Chen Qi's question.

In fact, even if the old instructor were sober, he probably wouldn't be able to answer that question.

Within my field of vision, there was a flickering light; this was the glow from a strobe light. If flying in cloudless conditions, this flash would not be visible.

They were at an altitude of nearly 38,000 feet, which is considered a relatively high cruising altitude for commercial airliners.

At such a high altitude, apart from a few extremely developed cumulonimbus clouds, most of them should be scattered flocculent cirrus clouds. How could this feel like entering a dense cumulonimbus cloud?

Everything here is too abnormal! Whether inside or outside the plane!

Just as Chen Qi was somewhat stunned, a noise came from the side. Turning his head, he saw that the old teacher's left hand was groping for something. Chen Qi looked over and saw that the old teacher seemed to be searching for something that could save his life, and he looked extremely anxious.

"What are you looking for?" Chen Qi asked.

The old instructor was already confused and uttered a mumbled sound: "Oxygen mask."

The veteran instructor, whose respiratory system was weaker, had to wear an oxygen mask due to the irritation from the smoke. Each pilot in the cockpit was equipped with an oxygen mask. The captain's oxygen mask was on his left side, and the veteran instructor was fumbling for his mask.

However, Chen Qi, being ignorant and incompetent, didn't even think to put an oxygen mask on the old instructor, and even asked, "What did you say?"

This slight hesitation caused the already confused old instructor to suddenly lose consciousness and faint.

When Chen Qi saw that the old instructor was no longer moving, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. Although he had been cursing the old instructor as useless, when the old instructor actually lost consciousness, Chen Qi instantly began to feel afraid.

He can't handle the current situation on his own!

Inside the cabin, the smoke grew thicker and thicker, to the point that you had to squint to avoid the stinging pain in your eyes.

Xu Xian covered his mouth and nose, he couldn't wait any longer. Was this an emergency landing or a change of flight? Something had to be done eventually! What did it mean that the plane was maintaining a level flight?

Xu Xian wasn't alone in his concerns. While their lives weren't in immediate danger, prolonged exposure to this smoke could be disastrous. What should they do next? There had to be a plan! If they did nothing and said nothing, were they just going to wait and die?

"What the hell is going on? If it's really bad, can't we just not go to Qinghu and land first? Are we supposed to suffocate on this plane?"

The passenger in front of Xu Xian suddenly stood up and shouted towards the cabin crew's compartment, which immediately drew the echoes of many other passengers, and in an instant, the entire cabin was in chaos.

However, Xu Xian's eyes, which had been squinting, snapped open in an instant, his eyes filled with horror!

As the passenger in front of him stood up, perhaps the dust that had accumulated on his hair and shoulders was kicked up, and a cloud of dust hit Xu Xian's face.

Xu Xian instinctively waved his hand a few times, brushing away the dust that had risen. But then he suddenly stopped, realizing what this strange, unidentified smoke was all about!

It's sulfur!

(End of this chapter)