Legendary Captain

Chapter 171 Forced Landing on the Kunyang River (Happy New Year! Please vote with monthly tickets!)

The soil in the Dianyungang area already has a very high sand content, and the airport ground was not properly compacted. After being washed by rain overnight, the ground hardness of Kunyang Airport is now simply unable to withstand the load of an aircraft touching down.

The numerous puddles indicated that last night's rainfall was far more than just a few scattered drops. With such a massive amount of rainwater infiltrating the ground, coupled with the high sand content in the soil, the outcome was pretty much predictable if Xu Xian dared to land the plane at Kunyang Airport.

A massive object weighing tens of tons crashing onto soft, wet soil could cause the landing gear and even the fuselage to sink into the ground, potentially leading to the aircraft disintegrating on the spot.

Keep in mind that the plane had just taken off and its fuel tanks still contained a large amount of fuel. If the plane disintegrated and the fuel tanks ruptured, a violent explosion and fire would follow.

Even if someone miraculously survives the initial disintegration of the plane, they are unlikely to escape the subsequent explosion and flames. In fact, Xu Xian felt that the chances of survival after landing at Kunyang Airport were not much different from those after landing at Dianyungang Airport; both were extremely slim.

Xu Xian initially thought he had found the perfect alternative, but one wrong move led to total defeat. He had just escaped the tiger's den only to fall into a pack of wolves.

Li Zhiming stared blankly at the puddles of varying sizes above Kunyang Airport, then suddenly burst into manic laughter: "What utter nonsense about 'there's always a way out'? Now they're going to kill us all!"

The entire operations control center and control room were filled with the frantic voices of Li Zhiming.

Why did Xu Xian wait until he was certain the plane's altitude was sufficient to reach Kunyang Airport before turning towards it? Because, with the same power and configuration, an aircraft is more prone to losing altitude during a turn. However, altitude was now a matter of life and death for Xu Xian and his crew; they dared not risk it carelessly.

If the plane turns to fly towards Kunyang Airport, but then finds that it is not high enough altitude and has to turn back to Dianyun Airport, it will lose a lot of altitude during those two turns. Then the plane will not have enough altitude, and even the theoretical possibility of landing at Dianyun Airport will be gone.

Ironically, Star Travel 6233 could indeed glide to Kunyang Airport. Kunyang Airport is theoretically a decent emergency landing site, but everyone overlooked the fact that it had rained the night before, making the ground soft and unsuitable for large passenger planes to land.

The plane is already flying towards Kunyang Airport. If it were to turn back to Dianyun Airport at the last minute, the two consecutive turns and altitude losses would eliminate even the slightest theoretical possibility. Even if Xingyou 6233 maintains the optimal glide ratio, the plane still won't be able to reach Dianyun Airport.

Through the right-hand window, Xu Xian saw the densely packed buildings surrounding the airport bathed in the light of the rising sun, extinguishing his last hope of returning to Dianyun Airport. He sighed deeply, filled with endless sorrow: "Heaven is against me!"

At this moment, Xu Xian had no idea what to do next.

With no airports available—Kunyang Airport where he couldn't land and Dianyun Airport where he couldn't fly—Xu Xian was left with only one path: death.

Wen Jingshu, who had still held a sliver of hope just moments before, felt her heart clench again upon hearing Xu Xian's words. She couldn't understand how, when the flight department leaders had been praising Xu Xian's brilliant choice, the two crew members had completely lost hope in the blink of an eye.

She stepped forward, pulled the technician aside, pressed the call button, and contacted Xu Xian: "Xu Xian, what's going on?"

"It rained last night, so we can't land at Kunyang Airport!" Xu Xian replied dejectedly. At this moment, even Xu Xian felt helpless.

Although Xu Xian wanted to answer Wen Jingshu, the control room could also hear his voice due to the existence of the emergency communication system.

"It's raining? Why can't it land?" The control tower initially didn't quite grasp Xu Xian's logic, but suddenly, as if realizing something, their expression turned grim: "Could it be that Kunyang hasn't yet completed the subgrade compaction?"

Kunyang Airport and Dianyun Airport are not far apart and have similar terrain conditions. When Dianyun Airport was built, a foundation treatment method of dynamic compaction with a cushion layer was adopted for the hard plastic, plastic red clay and cohesive soil.

The soil around Kunyang Airport is deeper and more widely distributed, so logically, a large-area compaction method for the subbase layer should be adopted.

The air traffic controller wasn't paying much attention to news about Kunyang Airport since he wouldn't be going there for the time being. However, in his view, Kunyang Airport had been under construction for quite some time now. At the very least, the foundation should be mostly complete by now.

Once the foundation is compacted, even if it rains, the ground will certainly be softer, but only to a thin layer on the surface. An aircraft landing on this surface will most likely not sink very deep. In this way, there's still a slight chance the aircraft won't disintegrate.

But if the soil layer is not treated, after a night of rain, the soil will be loose and soft, and the plane's wheels will sink deep as soon as they touch the ground, which would be a dead end.

This isn't just the controller's wild imagination; similar situations have occurred many years ago!

The accident wasn't due to any problem with the aircraft engine. Rather, it happened on a rainy day, and because the runway was too slippery, the crew failed to control the landing roll direction properly, causing the aircraft to overshoot the runway shortly after touchdown and land on the adjacent grass.

The plane's landing gear sank into the grass as soon as it entered the grass. First, the landing gear separated, then the wing broke off, and finally the fuselage broke into three pieces. Of the 160 people on board, only 12 survived.

This happened after the plane touched down and then crashed into the grass. It's important to understand that the aircraft's maximum touchdown load occurs immediately after touchdown, and that impact was caught by the runway. If the plane had landed directly on the grass in that accident, there wouldn't have been any sequence of landing gear separation; the fuselage would have broken apart immediately.

It was precisely because of this precedent that the tower controllers were able to understand the source of Xu Xian's despair.

"It seems not!" An air traffic controller, equally grim-faced, said, "Construction at Kunyang Airport was halted shortly after it began due to funding issues, and it's been stalled for several months."

I, the tower controller, was so angry I wanted to curse, but I held back in the end.

Unlike the air traffic controllers who showed little interest in the new airport, Xu Xian did have some knowledge of Kunyang Airport. Since Xingyou Airlines is a local airline in Dianyungang City, its base airport would be moved there once Kunyang Airport opened. Therefore, it wasn't that Xu Xian was genuinely interested in Kunyang Airport. Rather, Xingyou Airlines would occasionally send out news about it, so Xu Xian had a general understanding of the airport's construction progress.

Even though we know that Kunyang Airport has not yet undergone soil treatment, the ground surface has at least been leveled, and having a flat open space is already quite good.

But the weather was uncooperative; last night's rain turned the ground into a muddy mess.

By this time, the passengers in the cabin, having already experienced the internal engine explosion, were terrified. However, with the plane in the air, there was nowhere to escape.

Some remained expressionless, others cursed loudly, and many even embraced each other and wept bitterly—truly a diverse display of human nature.

The flight attendant noticed that there were all sorts of people in the cabin, and as long as they didn't wander around, she didn't bother them.

Although the flight attendants weren't professional pilots, they had flown so many flights that they knew what a normal engine should sound like. The flight attendants in the front cabin could see through the portholes that the turbofan blades of both engines had basically stopped spinning, so they knew what was going on.

At this point, some passengers on the right side noticed that Yunnan Airport was actually to the right of the plane's flight path, and it seemed that the plane did not intend to return to Yunnan Airport.

Both engines exploded. Where else can we go if we don't go back to Yunnan Airport?

"Where is the plane going? Why isn't it going back?" Some agitated passengers, unable to bear the oppressive atmosphere any longer, began to loudly question the flight attendants.

Many passengers simply thought that since the engine had a problem and the plane had just taken off, why shouldn't it return to Yunnan Airport? Did they expect it to make an emergency landing in the wilderness like in the movies?

Movies are one thing, reality is another. What is it if you try to make an emergency landing in the wilderness?

Some passengers who had initially maintained their composure and trusted the crew's professionalism lost their composure upon learning that the plane was not heading to Yunnan Airport and began to join the chorus of condemnation.

The passengers' thoughts and mindset were no different from Li Zhiming's earlier desire to land at Dianyun Airport. When people are in extreme fear, they are prone to mental dead ends. Whether it was Li Zhiming or these passengers who were annoyed to see the plane fly in another direction, they stubbornly believed that returning to Dianyun Airport was the only way out.

Their thinking was certainly wrong and narrow-minded, but it didn't matter much now, because the place they were flying towards was also a dead end.

Some passengers were so agitated that they even stood up, pointed at the front cabin crew area, and shouted curses, demanding an explanation from the crew.

The chief flight attendant and flight attendant number three were seated in the front cabin crew compartment. As soon as flight attendant number three saw someone stand up, she immediately and dutifully asked the passenger to sit down. It was clear the passenger even seemed inclined to move into the aisle, so she prepared to unbuckle her seatbelt to stop her.

Little did they know that as soon as flight attendant number three stood up, the chief flight attendant immediately stopped her, saying, "Don't go, we're about to land, fasten your seatbelt."

"We're about to land, sis, how did you know?" Flight attendant number three asked in surprise.

"Shortly after takeoff, both engines malfunctioned. It was only a matter of minutes between life and death. How much longer do you think we could fly?" The purser gripped the third flight attendant's hand tightly: "Sit still, fasten your seatbelt, and you'll have a chance to survive."

"Sister, what the passenger said is that we didn't go to Yunnan Airport." Even though the third flight attendant seemed calm, she found it unbelievable that the plane didn't return to Yunnan Airport.

Even the most normal person can imagine what a forced landing in the wild, especially in a region like Yunnan with its undulating terrain, means!

"Shut up!" the flight attendant shouted sternly. "We're in charge of the cabin, how the plane flies is the cockpit's business! Don't meddle in things that don't concern you! It's one thing for passengers to ask questions, but how can you, as a flight attendant, act so ignorantly?"

Flight attendant number three was severely criticized by the head flight attendant, her eyes reddening: "Sister, but I'm scared!"

In fact, neither the passengers nor the cabin crew knew the specifics of the aircraft's condition. All they knew was that two engines appeared to be malfunctioning, and the plane was not currently en route to Yunnan Airport.

However, the passengers and crew had no idea how badly the two engines were damaged, whether they could be restarted, what the flight crew's intentions were, or what the chances of the plane landing safely were.

This lack of information has been a constant source of torment for passengers and crew. Sometimes, death itself may not be frightening, but the wait for it is agonizing.

The only difference is that the flight crew has received special training and is more restrained.

"Yes! Everyone's scared!" The flight attendant sighed, glanced up, and saw a passenger poised to confront her in the front cabin. She picked up the microphone and announced over the loudspeaker: "The plane is about to land. Please fasten your seatbelts!"

After saying that, he simply ignored the passenger.

"The plane is about to land!" The agitated passenger seemed to have punched a cotton ball. He was stunned for a moment, then quickly pulled his left foot, which was already on the aisle, back down and sat down without stopping. He carefully checked his seat belt, showing no signs of the tense atmosphere he had just displayed.

Not to mention that passenger, as soon as the flight attendant said that they were about to land, the other passengers all started checking their seat belts. They had no time to care about why the plane was not going to Yunnan Airport.

They knew this landing was unlike any other, and that seatbelts could be a crucial guarantee of their survival, so no one dared to be negligent.

In the rear cabin crew compartment, Xia Qing and flight attendant number four heard the purser's words and were also checking their seat belts.

"Sis, do you think we can survive?" Flight attendant number four, though usually carefree, appeared extremely anxious at this moment.

Xia Qing remained silent; she simply couldn't give an answer.

Not long after Lian Shanxue drove her car out of the residential area, she started looking for the location of Xingyou 6233 in the sky.

Shortly after the initial internal explosions that caused flames to shoot from the engine exhaust, the flames from both engines disappeared, making the aircraft less conspicuous.

If Xu Xian and his men hadn't turned on all the lights, it would have been easy to find them with a little searching.

Suddenly, Lian Shanxue's car stopped. She saw the plane in the sky make a sharp turn: "Changing locations? Not going to Yunnan?"

Lian Shanxue carefully discerned the plane's new flight path, lost in thought.

"This is the direction of the new airport. Are they going to make an emergency landing at Kunyang Airport?" Lian Shanxue struggled with the thought for a moment, then immediately turned the car around and drove towards the new airport.

In the control room, the tower controller contacted Xu Xian: "Star Travel 6233, what are your plans?"

"We plan to continue to Kunyang Airport!" Xu Xian replied.

The only thing to pray for now is that the rain hasn't eroded the soil too much. However, anyone with a modicum of sense knows that's just wishful thinking.

The air traffic controller wasn't surprised by the crew's response. He slammed his headset onto the console: "Damn it, they can't even solidify the foundation, seriously!"

If the construction of Kunyang Airport had been progressing faster, the current situation would not have occurred.

Just then, Wen Jingshu still wouldn't give up: "Xu Xian, isn't there any other way?"

The people from the flight department just explained to her the impact of rain on the soil. If Xu Xian continues to land at Kunyang Airport, wouldn't that be courting death?

"Other ways? What other ways are there?" Xu Xian gritted his teeth, his heart filled with intense resentment.

Suddenly, as the sun rose, the world became brighter, and a winding artificial river came into view in Xu Xian's field of vision.

That is the Kunyang River!

In an instant, Xu Xian's thoughts returned to the night two days earlier. After having dinner with some of Xia Qing's friends, Xu Xian and Xia Qing went to the Kunyang River embankment to get some fresh air and sober up.

The two sat on a stone bench by the river, gazing at the Kunyang River, which was dozens of meters wide. Xia Qing laughed and said, "I never thought there would still be man-made waterways like this!"

The Kunyang River uses a hardened riverbed design; in fact, not only the riverbed, but also the slopes on both sides of the river are covered with concrete.

"It will probably look really nice once the water comes in, but it's hard to say how long that will last," Xu Xian said, pursing his lips. He was clearly very dissatisfied with the Kunyang River's decision to harden the riverbed.

A small section of the Kunyang River is still unfinished, so water hasn't been diverted in yet. However, this hardened riverbed will make the entire riverbed look very beautiful and extremely clear in the early stages after water is diverted.

However, the hardening of the riverbed makes it difficult for microorganisms to survive in the water, and the river lacks self-purification ability. If the sewage discharge points near the Kunyang River cannot be properly controlled, the river water will quickly become turbid.

For this reason, riverbed hardening is now rarely used. However, Xu Xian did not expect that the largest artificial river in Yunnan would actually use riverbed hardening, which was something he had not anticipated.

"You seem to have a problem with the Kunyang River!" Xia Qing laughed. "At least they dug such a wide river; there will be a place to take walks in the future, which is a good thing!"

Xu Xian snorted, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Seeing Xu Xian throwing a childish tantrum, Xia Qing shook his arm: "How wide is this river, you ask?"

"How would I know?" Xu Xian said speechlessly.

Just then, an elderly man who seemed to be out for a stroll overheard Xu Xian and Xia Qing's conversation and chimed in, "It looks like it's thirty or forty meters long. Once the water is piped in, the environment here will definitely be nice, and we'll have a great place for our morning exercise."

His thoughts were instantly pulled back, and Xu Xian murmured, "Thirty or forty meters."

The next moment, Xu Xian's pupils contracted, and he immediately contacted control: "Tower, check the span of the Kunyang River bridge piers for me!"

What is the span of the Kunyang River bridge piers?

Upon hearing this, both the control room and Star Travel's operations control center were completely dumbfounded.

"What does that mean? What is he trying to do?" The ground controller had lost his ability to think; he couldn't keep up with the crew's thought process at all.

"Forget it, go check it out!" the controller yelled. But in his mind, he was thinking, "Is this going to be another Kunyang River miracle?"

In the operations control center, Wen Jingshu turned to the flight department staff and asked, "What does he mean? What's his connection to Kunyang River?"

The flight department leaders looked conflicted, but finally one of them stepped forward and said, "Chairman, the crew might be considering an emergency landing on the Kunyang River!"

"An emergency landing on the Kunyang River?" Wen Jingshu and Yang Ning were both taken aback. Xu Xian really had a mind that could think of anything.

However, Wen Jingshu thought of a problem: "What about the bridge? Won't it cause problems?"

"That's why he asked about the span of the Kunyang River bridge piers!" the flight department leader said with a wry smile. He was practically going crazy. What kind of monster had Xingyou Aviation hired that could come up with such an audacious idea?

In the control room, someone quickly found the span of the Kunyang River bridge pier: "Thirty-five meters, it uses the standard thirty-five-meter span!"

Upon hearing this, the control tower immediately contacted Xu Xian: "Star Travel 6233, the span of the bridge piers over the Kunyang River is thirty-five meters!"

"Thirty-five meters?" Li Zhiming frowned. "Not enough!"

As the captain, Li Zhiming understood what Xu Xian wanted to do when Xu Xian asked about the span of the Kunyang River bridge piers.

It must be said that this was an extremely bold idea. Unfortunately, the 737-800's wingspan is 35.8 meters, which is simply not enough for the aircraft to pass through. And the distance between the two bridges is simply not enough for the aircraft to slow down.

Although the idea is good, there is still no possibility of its implementation!

"Damn it, so close!" The leaders of the Operations Control Center and the Flight Department all sighed deeply. They were less than a meter off; otherwise, this method would have had a much higher success rate than a forced landing at Kunyang Airport, at least a slight degree of feasibility.

Although, it's still very small!

Is it really that God doesn't want them to live?

"No, that's enough!" Just as everyone was secretly lamenting the loss, Xu Xian voiced his objection.

Li Zhiming was annoyed: "The wingspan of the 800 isn't 35.8 meters, could it be that I've remembered it wrong?"

At this moment, everyone in the operations control center and control room was listening to Xu Xian's explanation.

"You're not mistaken! But this data only applies to the 800 aircraft with winglets. The wingspan of the 800 aircraft without winglets is 34.4 meters!"

Li Zhiming's eyes suddenly widened, and he abruptly turned his head to look at the wingtip of the main wing. Sure enough, the aircraft was not equipped with winglets.

"This plane is one of the oldest in the company, and one of the few 800s that doesn't have winglets. So, we still have a glimmer of hope!" Xu Xian's lips finally curled into a smile. Sure enough, nothing is absolute; God had given them a way out.

Li Zhiming suddenly remembered that during pre-flight preparations, he had asked the maintenance crew if the aircraft was going to be returned. The crew replied that the aircraft was too old and would be sent to the cargo airline immediately.

At the time, he had complained that the aircraft's thrust was severely diminished. Little did he know that it was precisely because the aircraft was too old and lacked winglets that it gave them a lifeline.

"Tower, we are preparing for an emergency landing on the Kunyang River. Request confirmation that there are no construction workers on this section of the river!" Xu Xian already had the answer in his mind. Only the furthest end of the Kunyang River still had construction work; the rest of the river was completed, and there was no one on it at this time.

Shortly afterward, confirmation came from the control center that there was no construction work being carried out in the nearby river channel.

"Alright, Star Travel 6233, prepare to make an emergency landing in the Kunyang River. Requesting ground support to follow." Xu Xian made the final decision.

Just then, Li Zhiming grabbed Xu Xian's left wrist: "Xu Xian, you only have less than a meter of space. Can you guarantee you can control the plane to pass through the bridge pier?"

The bridge pier has a span of 35 meters, while the airplane has a wingspan of 34.4 meters, leaving less than half a meter of clearance. The difficulty of its operation is simply incredible, and even Li Zhiming thought it was impossible!

However, Xu Xian simply shook off Li Zhiming's hand and sneered, "Just watch!"

As usual at the beginning of the month, I'm asking for monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)