Legendary Captain

Chapter 110 Immense Terror (Please Subscribe!)

Engine surge, as the name suggests, is a low-frequency, high-amplitude oscillation of airflow along the compressor axis in an engine. This low-frequency, high-amplitude airflow oscillation is a significant source of excitation force, leading to severe mechanical vibration and overheating of engine components, causing serious damage to parts in a very short time. Therefore, under any circumstances, an engine entering a surge state is extremely dangerous.

If Chen Qi was merely panicked and afraid before, the moment he discovered the engine surging, the fear deep within him was unleashed without restraint.

He looked down at the engine data displayed on the DU, where the N1 indicator and EGT value were fluctuating continuously, with very obvious changes. This was clear evidence of engine surge.

"It really started to surge!" Chen Qi's palms were sweating. He knew that engine surge had a memory function, but he didn't dare to do it. At such a high altitude, he didn't dare to reduce the throttle.

Chen Qi immediately loosened his shoulder strap, leaned to the side, and pushed the old instructor a few times, yelling, "You're having a shock, you bastard, wake up already!"

However, despite several attempts to wake him up, the old instructor showed no signs of regaining consciousness.

Chen Qi tried several times but still couldn't wake the old instructor, so he gave up. He slowly placed his left hand on the accelerator lever, hesitating whether to do the memory exercise about engine surge.

If engine surge is not addressed promptly, it will cause serious damage to the engine. Chen Qi knew this perfectly well, but he just lacked the confidence to do it himself.

Suddenly, Chen Qi released his left hand from the accelerator lever. In the end, he lacked the courage and determination to complete the memory project on engine surge on his own.

After releasing the throttle, Chen Qi moved his hand to the communications panel and switched the transmitter to the passenger broadcast position. He understood that the situation was urgent and there was no way to have the flight crew make passenger broadcasts anymore; he would make the broadcast himself to seek help from other pilots.

After everything was ready, Chen Qi briefly organized his thoughts and prepared to make an announcement to the passengers, but at that moment, another voice message came through his earpiece first.

"Everyone! Quiet! Don't move!"

Inside the cabin, Xu Xian observed the St. Elmo Fire for a moment and felt a chill rush up from the top of his head. Even someone as naturally calm as Xu Xian couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

Suddenly, Xu Xian's ears twitched, as if pulled by a tug, and his heart clenched violently at the same time. He shifted his gaze from the St. Elmo Fire back into the cabin, scanning every corner of the passenger compartment, trying to find the source of the sound.

Because the cabin was extremely noisy at the time, Xu Xian doubted whether he had misheard. However, as if by magic, he felt a sense of unease creeping into his heart.

"Thump!"

Suddenly, a muffled blast of air finally drowned out the noise in the cabin and clearly reached Xu Xian's ears. At that moment, Xu Xian was certain that he was not hallucinating.

The surrounding passengers may not have heard it, or they may have heard it but were unaware of what the explosion meant, and not a single person had any ominous thoughts.

However, Xu Xian heard the voice and recognized it.

That's the sound of an engine surging!

However, the cabin was too noisy, and Xu Xian only heard one clear sound before hearing nothing more. Xu Xian held his breath, but still got nowhere.

The crowd was still captivated by the spectacle of St. Elmo's Fire, marveling at it, completely unaware that danger was already imminent.

Xu Xian cursed under his breath. In this environment, he was unable to make an accurate judgment. His eyes flickered and finally landed on the flight attendant in the front cabin.

Without lingering, Xu Xian rushed to the front cabin crew quarters and grabbed the chief flight attendant's wrist: "Help me turn on the passenger announcement system, I have something to say."

Xu Xian knew how to adjust the passenger announcements on the cockpit communication panel, but he didn't know how to adjust the voice panel in the cabin, so he had to ask the flight attendant for help.

Seeing Xu Xian's anxiety, the flight attendant's heart skipped a beat: "What's wrong?"

Xu Xian's heart was pounding in his chest. He said in an extremely grave tone, "It's a matter of life and death!"

"Okay! I'll adjust it for you!" The flight attendant wasn't one to fuss over small things. If it was just borrowing the public address system, it wasn't a big deal, especially given the somewhat strange circumstances.

The flight attendant briefly adjusted the voice control panel and then handed the microphone to Xu Xian: "It's already set to broadcast mode. Everyone in the cabin can hear you now!"

"Thank you!" Xu Xian took the microphone, hesitated for a few seconds, and then shouted into the microphone, "Everyone! Quiet! Don't move!"

Xu Xian used almost all his strength, feeling that even without the help of the loudspeaker, his voice could still carry throughout the entire cabin. Even through the thick door of the cockpit, Chen Qi could still clearly hear Xu Xian's roar, not just through the earpiece.

Xu Xian's roar was like a biting cold wind, freezing the previously boiling atmosphere in the cabin. Everyone shut their mouths at the same moment, although they didn't know why they had to listen to Xu Xian. Perhaps they were intimidated by Xu Xian's imposing manner.

No one spoke, no one moved! In an instant, the entire cabin was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. At that moment, everything became clear.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!" The sound, like the rapid beating of a strong heart, instantly echoed in the ears of everyone in the cabin.

Xu Xian felt that the ground beneath his feet was undulating very noticeably, as if he were not on an airplane, but on a lone boat on a raging sea.

However, the observant Xu Xian keenly noticed something unusual. This time, the plane's movements were not up and down, but rather a more pronounced left and right swaying.

The dull thud and undulating motion made the plane seem as if it had been given life and come alive.

However, only Xu Xian knew that this was not the melody of life, but the call of death.

Xu Xian's fingers twitched slightly. He himself was unaware of this subtle movement, but it was noticed by the flight attendant who was not far away.

Xu Xian was scared!

As long as the engine doesn't malfunction, there's a good chance things can turn around. After all, with power, anything is possible; without power, a massive iron lump weighing tens of tons can't be moved around in the air.

But now the situation is different; the engine is having problems.

Xu Xian put the microphone back, quickly ran back to economy class, found a seat slightly forward, and looked out the window towards the engine.

Everyone in the cabin stared silently at Xu Xian. No one spoke, but many looked at him as if he were a madman.

When Xu Xian watched "The Fire of St. Elmo" before, he only caught a glimpse from afar through the crowd. This time, Xu Xian pushed his way through the crowd and peered out the window; he needed to figure out which engine had malfunctioned.

Xu Xian first chose the left engine, but upon closer inspection, he found that there was nothing unusual about the left engine.

Thankfully, at least one engine is still working!

Xu Xian wiped the sweat from his forehead. He had been startled and frightened the whole time, which had been quite tiring. His back was sticky.

Discarding the left engine, Xu Xian switched to the other engine, but before he could even get close to the window, he stopped.

The air intake duct of the right engine was flashing a bright yellow glow, unlike the blue shimmer of the St. Elmo Fire. Xu Xian instantly understood what this meant: it was one of the symptoms of engine backfire and engine surge.

The passengers on the plane were all laymen watching the spectacle, finding the St. Elmo Fire quite impressive, but they didn't notice the dangerous light emanating from the air intake.

The faulty engine had been identified; however, the next problem seemed even more serious. He whispered, "Why didn't you ease off the accelerator?"

Xu Xian had very sensitive ears; he could tell the throttle input just from the engine's roar. However, it was precisely because he could tell from the engine's sound that the throttle input hadn't decreased that Xu Xian became even more anxious.

Engine surge has a memory function, and it's not particularly complicated. You just need to disconnect the automatic throttle and then reduce the throttle on the affected engine.

For a faulty engine, you need to keep releasing the throttle until there's no more surging or the throttle is completely released. This isn't a difficult operation! But, since I first heard the engine surging sound, it's been going on for a while now, and I haven't touched the throttle at all.

The causes of engine surge are complex, but there is always room for maneuver before it escalates into serious engine damage; at the very least, it can be managed by maintaining reduced thrust operation.

However, if the best time to deal with the problem is missed, resulting in serious damage to engine parts, the engine will basically be scrapped and cannot be relied upon anymore.

Leaving aside the unequal monetary losses, the degree of lack of motivation is incomparable.

An engine that can only operate with reduced thrust is much more useful than an engine that is completely scrapped!

However, during this race against time, the cockpit remained completely unresponsive. From the appearance of the smoke to the engine malfunction, the cockpit showed no reaction whatsoever. Xu Xian even began to suspect that the aircraft might be unmanned.

"Could the smoke have knocked out the people in the cockpit?" Xu Xian's mind raced. "That shouldn't be possible! It shouldn't be like that!"

While the smoke was pungent, it was definitely not strong enough to knock someone unconscious. Surely the two people in the cockpit wouldn't both be affected? The probability was practically negligible!

The reality is that the cockpit allowed the engine surge malfunction to continue without taking any corrective action. If it weren't for the fact that everyone in the cockpit was incapacitated, or that the captain and first officer were blind and deaf, upon closer inspection, it seems there's not much difference between the two situations!

Regardless of the circumstances, the best course of action now is to go to the front cabin and get to the bottom of this.

Amidst the astonished gazes of the passengers, Xu Xian once again rushed to the front cabin. From beginning to end, Xu Xian came and went in a hurry, much like the scrutinizing eyes of the passengers.

Xu Xian returned to the front cabin crew and asked the chief flight attendant directly, "Have you been in contact with the cockpit recently?"

"We just spoke a short while ago, what's wrong?" the flight attendant asked. For some reason, she had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

"Then why didn't you ease off the throttle!" Xu Xian, upon hearing that the cockpit wasn't disabled, became extremely agitated, almost shouting at the flight attendant, "The engine is shuddering!"

Despite the persistent engine surge, the cockpit remained unresponsive. Was this even humanly possible? If the smoke incident had allowed Xu Xian to remain somewhat calm, the engine malfunction now directly threatened the lives of everyone on board, including Xu Xian himself. He could no longer remain seated.

"What's wrong with the engine? Is it heaving or throbbing?" The flight attendant had never heard of such technical terms before, but even an ordinary person knows that engine problems are no small matter.

"Surging! The engine is surging! If you keep doing this, the engine will stall!" Xu Xian was initially very agitated, but as he was about to say "stalling," he suddenly remembered that his voice was too loud and would cause a disturbance if other passengers heard him. He immediately lowered his voice, managing to back down.

"Turn off the engine!" The flight attendant finally understood and quickly pulled the curtain up. The conversation below couldn't be heard by the passengers; if they did, the cabin would be in chaos.

Seeing that the flight attendant understood the seriousness of the situation, Xu Xian said with extreme seriousness, "I need to speak to the cockpit!"

This time, the flight attendant didn't hesitate and simply asked, "Which company are you with, and what type of aircraft?"

The flight attendant's question indicated that she was preparing to explain the situation to the cockpit, suggesting that she herself was questioning the cockpit's current capabilities.

"Star Travel Airlines, 737, Xu Xian!" Xu Xian explained his situation concisely.

At this point, Xu Xian should have explained his level or experience, but he hesitated to do so. He feared that his student level would diminish his influence.

The actions of the cockpit from the moment they left until now have completely eroded Xu Xian's confidence in them. He would rather trust his own actions than the actions of the people in the cockpit.

Fortunately, the flight attendant was not a pilot and did not realize that she needed to ask Xu Xian about his rank and experience. After obtaining this information, she immediately prepared to contact the cockpit.

Just as the flight attendant took a step forward, Xu Xian grabbed her arm: "Tell the cockpit about the engine surge. Also, if there are any operational difficulties ahead, I can help!"

This is blatant self-recommendation.

Xu Xian was already impatient, panting heavily, and could not afford to waste a single moment.

In response to Xu Xian's urgent actions, the flight attendant simply nodded. After successfully communicating with the cockpit, the flight attendant said, "Cockpit, we have a pilot here who identifies himself as a pilot from Xingyou Airlines, operating a 737. He has informed us that we are experiencing engine surge."

The flight attendant didn't continue, feeling that she had said enough for the cockpit to make a judgment.

Sure enough, as soon as the flight attendant mentioned engine surge, Chen Qi felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders. Anyone who could detect engine surge in the cabin without relying on engine data was undoubtedly a pilot, and on a 737 at that—a perfect fit.

If it's Star Travel Airlines, then isn't that a subsidiary of Chimelong Airlines? Aren't they family?

Everything seems to have taken a turn for the better!

"Block the entrance and let him in!" Chen Qi said urgently.

Even though Chen Qi was extremely anxious, he still knew to have the safety officer block the entrance to prevent anyone from assaulting the cockpit.

The flight attendant asked, "He's traveling privately and didn't bring any identification. Is that alright?"

It's not that you can't enter the cockpit without proper identification. In an emergency, anyone the captain deems beneficial to the flight can enter the cockpit. However, the purser feels it's necessary to remind the cockpit staff of this.

"You know about shortness of breath, and you're not a pilot? Hurry up! Stop being so indecisive!" Chen Qi instantly regained his arrogant demeanor and yelled at the flight attendant.

The flight attendant couldn't argue with Chen Qi at this point, so she hung up the phone and informed Xu Xian, "You can go into the cockpit now!"

Xu Xian's heart pounded. Just then, he heard the crisp sound of the cockpit door being released. The cockpit door moved slightly and opened!

Xu Xian had just taken a step when his ears suddenly twitched, and the surrounding roar instantly quieted down considerably. Xu Xian's previously wildly beating heart suddenly clenched, and an indescribable, immense terror slowly crept into his heart.

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Some people think the following plot is predictable, but they're underestimating me!

(End of this chapter)