Legendary Captain

Chapter 259 Cross-Regional Inspection from the Northeast Bureau

"Mr. Lu, this is the incident report for Flight 6121."

In the FlightBeacon office, a FlightBeacon staff member opened an electronic document containing an incident report about an error in the approach procedure for Flight Star Travel 6121.

The approach procedure error incident involving Star Cruises Flight 6121 wasn't a major incident, as it didn't result in any aircraft collision. However, according to protocol, the crew members involved—Gu Kangrong, Xu Xian, and Ye Xin—were all summoned to the company for a meeting. Based on the crew's statements, combined with aircraft data and cockpit voice recordings, this incident report was ultimately compiled.

Lu Xinyu glanced at the incident report and nodded: "That's about it. Forward it to the Safety Supervision Department, and then submit it to the Regulatory Bureau."

In this incident, the on-duty dispatcher certainly bears the primary responsibility. However, following past precedents, the crew involved might also be implicated and receive some minor penalties. It's rather unusual that Xingyou Airlines did not punish Xu Xian and his team this time.

Although Xu Xian and others were not punished, the safety situation for Xingyou Airlines is far from optimistic. It's particularly frustrating that such an incident occurred during a recent period of focused safety overhaul.

"The dispatcher on duty on 6121, the dispatch release manager, and the head of the general dispatch office have all been punished. This is the punishment report." The staff member of Feibiao opened another edited email, which contained a punishment report.

The dispatcher on duty that day bears primary responsibility, and their superiors, the dispatch and release manager and the head of the general dispatch office, also bear management responsibility, so they cannot escape punishment either. Of course, compared to the dispatcher's punishment, the punishment for the release manager and the head of the general dispatch office is less severe.

Lu Xinyu didn't bother looking at the punishment notice for the dispatcher: "They're not one of ours, I'm not interested. By the way, which region is it for the cross-regional inspection? The Northeast Bureau or the Central Plains Bureau?"

Although the flight dispatch department is closely connected with the flight operations department, they belong to different departments. The fact that flight 6121 flew to the wrong airport is definitely the responsibility of the dispatch department. As long as they make sure they don't shift the blame to the flight operations department, Lu Xinyu has absolutely no interest in knowing anything else, such as what kind of punishment the dispatcher will receive.

In comparison, Lu Xinyu was more concerned about the upcoming cross-regional inspection.

The country is divided into five major regions, each with a management bureau: the Southeast Bureau, the Southwest Bureau, the Northeast Bureau, the Northwest Bureau, and the Central Plains Bureau.

Generally speaking, each area is relatively independent, with limited communication and a relatively closed environment.

For the authorities, unless some special event occurs, they will not specifically investigate an airline, but this does not mean that the authorities completely ignore airlines.

Long ago, to prevent inspectors from their own airline from giving lenient inspections to their captains or first officers, the authorities would assign inspectors from another airline in the same region to inspect the captains and first officers of that airline. This way, personal relationships could be avoided.

Of course, these inspections are not frequent, as most airlines rarely slack off on internal checks. However, these inter-company inspections do serve as a warning to airlines, and even though they are infrequent, they have been maintained.

However, as time went on, due to the closed environment within the film, many pilots in the same area, even those from different airlines, knew each other. As a result, even cross-company checks could be somewhat inaccurate.

The authorities take mutual inspections very seriously. While the frequency of these inspections may be low, absolute impartiality must be guaranteed. Subsequently, several years ago, the authorities cancelled mutual inspections between airlines within a region and switched to mutual inspections between regions.

Between different regions, each regional authority appoints an inspection company and the company being inspected, and then the two airlines send personnel to conduct mutual inspections. If someone can influence the inspection process even across regions, demonstrating such extensive connections, the authorities will accept it.

However, such a situation of having connections to the highest levels of authority does not actually exist, and the mutual checks so far have been quite fair.

As is customary, soon after, other regions will come to inspect the Southwest region. This time, the airline to be inspected in the Southwest region was decided long ago, namely Star Travel Airlines.

"President Lu, this time it's the Northeast Bureau that's inspecting us. The Northeast Bureau has chosen an instructor from Kunlong Aviation to conduct the inspection. Should I find out his information beforehand?" asked the staff member from Feibiao.

It is very necessary to understand the habits of the people who come to inspect in advance. This is what we have always done when dealing with cross-company or cross-regional inspections.

The results of these cross-regional inspections can affect an airline's safety ranking at the end of the year. If a large proportion of those sent for inspection fail, it will have a significant impact on the airline.

"Kunlong Airlines?" Lu Xinyu felt annoyed just hearing the name. Why was Kunlong Airlines chosen to inspect them this time out of all the airlines under the Northeast Bureau's jurisdiction?

"Yes, Kunlong Aviation," the staff member from Feibiao said helplessly.

In other people's eyes, Lu Xinyu was already incredibly arrogant, but compared to the people from Kunlong Airlines, he was nothing.

The people at Kunlong Airlines are notorious in the industry for their arrogance; they look down on all airlines except those under the Qingyuan Group.

In their eyes, apart from Qingyuan Group, any other airline that can make a living is simply because they are giving them a handout. This idea makes some sense. If Qingyuan Group and Kunlong Airlines are determined to monopolize the domestic civil aviation market, they can certainly take 80% or 90% of it, if not the whole market.

However, Qingyuan Group and Kunlong Airlines are now intentionally controlling their expansion pace, accounting for only 50% to 60% of the domestic civil aviation market, which is quite restrained.

Of course, it wasn't that Kunlong Airlines was genuinely kind-hearted and knew the importance of leaving room for maneuver. It was simply that Han Qi, a figurehead of Kunlong Airlines, strongly insisted on doing it this way. If it weren't for Han Qi's insistence, Kunlong Airlines would have already begun its frenzied expansion.

There's no way around it; with Han Qi backing them, Kunlong Airlines naturally has an abundance of confidence. Those who come out of there speak with a voice several degrees louder than the average person. Lu Xinyu attributes this to arrogance. Kunlong Airlines is arrogant, and so are its employees, but people from other companies can't do anything about it—who can blame them when they have powerful backers?

Throughout China, apart from Qingyuan Group, no airline is willing to be inspected by Kunlong Airlines. Of course, Qingyuan Group doesn't like being inspected by Kunlong Airlines either; they just don't care. Within Qingyuan Group, Kunlong Airlines doesn't have the right to act arrogantly.

"If it's someone from Kunlong Airlines, then checking the information or not won't make much difference," Lu Xinyu sighed. The inspectors from Kunlong Airlines are all arrogant and dismissive; it's too easy to get influenced in your mindset when flying with them.

Previously, when Xingyou Airlines was inspected by Kunlong Airlines, Xingyou Airlines sent a very skilled captain for inspection. However, the captain was lectured incessantly by the Kunlong Airlines inspectors from the pre-flight preparation stage, and even the handwriting on his signature was criticized at length.

Once or twice is fine, but after a while, the captain's mentality completely collapsed. He felt like there was something wrong with everything he did. Perhaps the final landing was really affected by his mentality, resulting in a hard landing. Although it was only a soft warning, it was enough for the inspector of the Kunlong to give a non-compliance result.

It was only later that it was discovered that, apart from the last landing, the captain had done everything perfectly. The inspector from Kunlong Airlines was simply questioning and trying to unsettle the captain. If the last landing had been fine, the Kunlong Airlines inspector wouldn't have dared to sign off on it.

That being said, the captain who was sent there had a very good mental fortitude, but he was still disgusted by the people from Kunlong Airlines. Lu Xinyu felt that no one could possibly pass the inspection by Kunlong Airlines.

The inspectors at Kunlong Aviation test not only flying skills, but also many other aspects.

To be honest, Lu Xinyu knew he might not even pass the inspection by Kunlong Airlines if he were sent there.

"By the way, who was it that delivered it this time?" Lu Xinyu asked.

Each time such an inspection is conducted, the airline must send an instructor, a captain, a first officer, and a second officer to undergo the inspection. Generally, the specific selection is up to the airline to decide.

"Instructor, the captain and the second first officer have not yet been decided."

Lu Xinyu thought for a moment: "If it's for instructors, let Ning Sheng go. He has good mental fortitude and excellent flying skills."

In fact, among instructors, Qin Zongyang is the most suitable person to handle this type of inspection, not to mention other levels. He was the one who underwent the inspections in the past few times.

Qin Zongyang is a natural-born shameless rogue, with a skin thicker than a city wall. Those attempts to manipulate his mentality have absolutely no effect on him. At least when it comes to mentality, Qin Zongyang has it firmly under control.

Moreover, Qin Zongyang not only has an extremely strong mental fortitude, but also very steady hand skills. Combining these two qualities, Qin Zongyang is undoubtedly the best candidate.

One of the reasons why Qin Zongyang was able to remain as the deputy general manager of the flight department despite his poor reputation was that he helped deal with such inspections on several occasions.

However, Qin Zongyang is currently under demotion and cannot be considered for inspection. Therefore, they have no choice but to settle for Ning Sheng instead.

Despite being a young instructor, Ning Sheng is quite capable, and Lu Xinyu has high hopes for him.

In fact, if it weren't for the limitations imposed by his position, Lu Xinyu would have been willing to go and undergo the inspection himself. However, Lu Xinyu held the positions of both Deputy General Manager of the Flight Department and Chief Pilot. If he failed the inspection, Xingyou Aviation's Flight Department would suffer a huge loss of face, and that was a risk he couldn't take.

Suddenly, Lu Xinyu realized something: "You just mentioned instructors, captains, and second first officers, but what about the first first officer? Has someone already been chosen?"

The staff member from Chimelong Airlines' Feibiao (飞标) then reopened their company email and opened an email from Feibiao. The email from Feibiao contained only one sentence.

Xu Xian has been selected as the first co-driver for this cross-regional inspection. Please be aware of this.

This email seemed very abrupt and awkward. Although it was sent in the name of Chimelong Airlines, it did not follow the format of a formal document and was more like a one-on-one notification.

Lu Xinyu frowned slightly: "Since when did Chimelong Airlines start interfering with our cross-regional inspections?"

Although Chimelong Airlines is a subsidiary of Star Travel, the two are not the same company. Moreover, the entire Wens Group maintains a cautious approach to its subsidiaries, which naturally affects Chimelong Airlines.

Normally, unless there are special circumstances, Chimelong Airlines rarely makes direct requests of Star Airlines. However, this time, Chimelong Airlines specifically requested Xu Xian to undergo a cross-regional inspection, which is truly rare.

"Mr. Lu, please check who was copied in this email." The Feibiao staff member then opened the email header, which showed the recipients of this email.

"Wen Ningyuan?" Lu Xinyu softly read out the name of the person copied on the document. He didn't know this person, but the name seemed to indicate someone of importance. After all, the previous chairman was named Wen Mingyuan; the two names differed by only one character. He scratched his head in slight annoyance: "Who is this?"

"Group Director, Chairman of the Wens Foundation."

Lu Xinyu slapped his forehead: "Forget it, forget it, we won't interfere in their rich family's affairs, let's just do it the way Chimelong does."

Sometimes he felt that the dramatic developments in real life were even more exciting than those in novels and movies. He preferred to stay away from situations where gods fought and mortals suffered, avoiding such situations as the battle of the gods.

"Ahem!" While Lu Xinyu remained uninvolved, the staff at Feibiao were abuzz with gossip: "Hey Mr. Lu, what's the background of this Xu Xian? Chimelong specifically named him for inspection and even sent a copy to the group's board of directors. Is this something the group's board of directors should be concerned with?"

Cross-regional inspections between airlines don't seem to be something that the group's board of directors should be concerned with. However, such an outrageous thing happened. How could the staff of Feibiao not be curious?

"Hmph!" Lu Xinyu slapped the shoulder of the darts employee heavily. "You're really got too much free time to be gossiping about the group's directors. Stop asking questions. Gather your recent matters, I'm going out for a bit, we'll take care of everything later."

"Okay, sure!"

After giving his instructions, Lu Xinyu went out to take care of his urgent need to use the restroom. But just as Lu Xinyu stepped out, Xu Xian entered Feibiao's office, almost immediately after Lu Xinyu.

Xu Xian was holding a file folder containing a transfer certificate and a flight path inspection work order. He went straight to the staff member who had just spoken with Lu Xinyu and asked, "Hey, has the outcome of the 6121 matter been decided yet?"

The staff member glanced at Xu Xian's smiling face and minimized the various official documents on the computer screen. Some of these documents were confidential and could not be shown to Xu Xian.

After everything was settled, the staff member pulled Xu Xian closer and said seriously, "One good news, one bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"Huh?" Xu Xian was puzzled, but didn't think much of it. "Good news, I guess."

"The good news is that the matter of 6121 is considered closed. None of you have been punished. How about that?"

"No punishment?" Xu Xian's eyes lit up. "That means it has absolutely nothing to do with us?"

"Yeah, isn't it all the dispatcher's responsibility? It has nothing to do with you!" said the darts staff member. "What are you holding in your hand?"

"If that's not our problem, then I'll just hand in the upgrade certificate and the flight line inspection worksheet." Xu Xian opened the file folder and took out the upgrade certificate and the flight line inspection worksheet.

Gu Kangrong originally intended to tell Fei Biao that the flight route inspection had been canceled for some reason. However, Xu Xian thought about it and told Gu Kangrong to wait a moment before telling Fei Biao about the cancellation of the flight route inspection. Instead, he would go to Fei Biao to find out about flight 6121 first.

If the company doesn't intend to punish them, then there's no need to postpone the flight inspection. Xu Xian came today to gather information. Before coming, Xu Xian planned that if he received news that the company wouldn't punish them, he would submit the upgrade certificate and flight inspection work order. If he could upgrade sooner, why wait any longer?

Xu Xian's plan had been approved by Gu Kangrong, so when he heard that the company was not going to punish them, Xu Xian didn't hold back and directly handed over the upgrade manual and the flight line inspection work order to Fei Biao.

"What does 6121 have to do with you? What does it have to do with the transfer certificate and flight line inspection work order?" The flight mark staff member took the transfer certificate and flight line inspection work order handed over by Xu Xian, glanced at them briefly, and frowned: "Why aren't the flight segment and date written?"

Xu Xian was taken aback, leaned closer to take a look, and immediately felt embarrassed: "Sorry, I forgot!"

I was so excited when I heard that the company wasn't going to hold them accountable that I forgot there was still a lot of stuff I hadn't filled out on the transfer and route inspection worksheets.

"You forgot this?" The staff member from the flight control center handed the upgrade log and flight line inspection form back to Xu Xian speechlessly: "Fill them out and give them to me."

"Haha!" Xu Xian scratched the back of his head sheepishly, took the upgrade manual and flight line inspection worksheet, and suddenly remembered something: "Oh right, what's the bad news?"

"Huh? Oh!" Distracted by the transfer of licenses and the flight line inspection work order, the flight staff almost forgot about this. Just as they were about to tell Xu Xian about the cross-regional inspection, their gaze suddenly shifted to the office door: "President Lu!"

"Lu?" Xu Xian subconsciously followed the staff member's gaze and looked towards the door.

When Lu Xinyu returned from relieving herself, she saw Xu Xian in her previous spot as soon as she entered the room. She paused for a moment and asked, "Xu Xian, what are you doing?"

"I'll submit the upgrade certificate and the flight line inspection worksheet."

"Oh, okay, then you go ahead and do your work." Seeing that Xu Xian was busy, Lu Xinyu consciously didn't interrupt him, but instead found a seat next to him and sat down, clearly waiting for Xu Xian.

Ever since Xu Xian went to Lu Xinyu to discuss the contract, Lu Xinyu's attitude towards him had changed drastically. At first, Xu Xian thought Lu Xinyu had some ulterior motive, but after a while, it seemed Lu Xinyu hadn't resorted to any tricks. On the contrary, Lu Xinyu's attitude towards Xu Xian remained consistently friendly afterward, making Xu Xian wonder if Lu Xinyu had hit his head and suddenly changed his personality.

Ignoring Lu Xinyu, Xu Xian focused on his own business and continued, "What's the bad news? Tell me?"

"Oh, the Northeast Regional Administration will be conducting a cross-regional inspection soon. Our airline is the one being inspected in the Southwest region. This inspection involves four levels: instructors, captains, first officer, and second officer. You've already been chosen as the first officer. You can prepare in advance."

"Cross-regional inspection? What does that mean?" Xu Xian was not very familiar with this type of unconventional inspection.

"Well, how should I put it?" The staff member at Feibiao was at a loss for words and could only turn his gaze to Lu Xinyu.

Lu Xinyu stood up cooperatively, put his arm around Xu Xian's shoulder and pushed him into a small conference room inside, closing the door and saying, "Let me explain the cross-regional inspection to you. In terms of form, this cross-regional inspection is the same as a regular flight route inspection, only the inspectors are slightly different."

"Not from our company?" Xu Xian quickly replied.

"To be precise, it's not from our Southwest region, it's Kunlong Airlines from the Northeast region."

"Kunlong Airlines. Kunlong Airlines it is. The inspection is the same as a normal flight route inspection, nothing else is different?" If it is just a normal flight route inspection, Xu Xian doesn't think there is anything wrong with it. He is afraid of some strange things.

I'm not afraid of difficulties, I'm afraid of strange things.

"No, the inspectors are from a different company, everything else is the same. In fact, we'll even have a captain accompany you on the flight, so the inspection won't cover anything obscure."

"That doesn't matter." Xu Xian was never afraid of so-called inspections, as long as they didn't involve any disgusting things.

Lu Xinyu paused for a moment: "However, the people at Kunlong Airlines have rather bad tempers, so you'll have to be a little patient with them."

Are the people at Kunlong Airlines short-tempered, while Xu Xian is not? Two hot-tempered people together, isn't that like Mars colliding with Earth? Who knows what kind of trouble they'll cause?

"As long as he doesn't provoke me, I definitely won't provoke him." Xu Xian has always adhered to the principle of "I won't offend others unless they offend me." But if some people are shameless, he naturally won't just obediently put up with their attitude; he's not that kind of person.

Lu Xinyu was in a terrible predicament. If the people from Kunlong Airlines were all well-behaved and didn't cause trouble, that wouldn't be the style of Kunlong Airlines. But Xu Xian was clearly not one to swallow his pride either. What if they started fighting on the plane over a disagreement?

Normally, Lu Xinyu might have intervened and prevented Xu Xian from undergoing the examination. However, with a group director involved, he wouldn't dare replace Xu Xian even if he had ten times the courage.

"Forget it, let them do whatever they want." Lu Xinyu didn't care anymore; he'd leave it to fate how things turned out.

After explaining the cross-regional inspection, Lu Xinyu prepared for the conversation, but then suddenly remembered something and pulled Xu Xian aside with a smile, saying, "Recently, everyone in the industry has been saying that Han Qi tried to recreate your super low-altitude flat maneuver, but it seems he failed. Wow, even Han Qi can't do that; it's very technically demanding!"

Xu Xian's ultra-low-altitude leveling maneuver during the landing at Hamchi Airport in the Xingyou 6333 incident was extremely difficult, as everyone in the know understands. However, many people have no idea just how difficult it was.

Now that even Han Qi can't finish it, everyone has a clear understanding of the situation.

"Han Qi? Who spread this news?" Xu Xian asked curiously.

Lu Xinyu shrugged: "How would I know? It's all over the industry right now, but how would I know where it originated?"

"But shouldn't this kind of thing be kept secret?" Putting aside the technical level of his ultra-low-altitude maneuver, wouldn't the news that Han Qi couldn't replicate it affect his "omnipotent" image? As one of the benchmarks in the civil aviation industry, shouldn't Han Qi be extremely careful in managing his image? It's already spread everywhere, and Kunlong Airlines' public relations department isn't doing anything about it?

Lu Xinyu pursed her lips: "According to the rules, this should be kept secret."

Xu Xian and Han Qi knew each other, and Xu Xian had a good impression of Han Qi, so he couldn't help but ask with concern: "Won't this have any impact on Han Qi?"

"Do you know how big the impact of this information leak is?" In the chairman's office of Kunlong Airlines, Chairman Yun Shang roared at Han Qi across from him.

(End of this chapter)