Legendary Captain

Chapter 365 Sending someone to their death!

The cockpit of Lotoo Flight 5641.

Shortly after takeoff, once the plane entered cruise mode, the captain handed over the controls to the co-pilot. During cruise, there was relatively little to do, so the captain proudly took out his phone, opened his photo album, and showed the co-pilot a picture of himself and Xu Xian.

"You know who this is, right?" The captain grinned from ear to ear, unable to contain his excitement.

"This, is this Xu Xian?" The co-pilot's mind raced for a moment before he grabbed his phone. "It really is Xu Xian, bro! When did you take this picture? Wait, is this our plane? First class?"

When the co-pilot saw the background in the photo, he felt that the location where Xu Xian and the captain took the photo looked familiar. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be the cabin of their Letu plane.

"Isn't that right?" The captain, like a child showing off his toy to others, gestured towards the back with his chin. "He's sitting right here in first class, didn't you know?"

"Holy crap! I thought it was on another flight, but it's right here on our plane!" The co-pilot was so excited he couldn't contain himself, and he pulled out his phone: "Hey, bro, how about we get off the plane and I go to the back and take a picture too?"

"What do you want to take a picture of?" The captain laughed, stopping the co-pilot's "star-chasing" behavior: "He's probably resting. Once we land, you should hurry up and get out."

"After landing? Sure, sure." The co-pilot thought about it and realized that rushing out to ask Xu Xian for a photo seemed a bit unprofessional. After the plane landed and arrived at the port, there would be time to wait for it to dock at the bridge, during which time he could go out and look for Xu Xian.

The co-pilot watched the captain put away his phone with great envy, his mouth practically watering: "Hey bro, when we were on the ground, you clearly knew Xu Xian was on our flight, but you didn't tell me? Otherwise, I could have taken the opportunity to take a picture with him."

The co-pilot's tone revealed a hint of resentment towards the captain for not sharing Xu Xian's intelligence with him.

"Haha! I was in such a rush on the ground that I forgot." The captain was a little embarrassed. "Don't worry, don't worry, there'll be another chance after we land."

"What if he has an emergency and I don't stop him? That's not safe!" The co-pilot felt increasingly regretful. Before takeoff, no one was in a hurry, and even if they were, they would wait until takeoff time. But things would be different after landing. If Xu Xian had something urgent, he might not have the patience to linger for a photo with him anymore, even though, logically speaking, a photo wouldn't take long. However, opportunities to be this close to Xu Xian were rare, and the co-pilot was afraid of missing out.

He truly admired a dazzling star like Xu Xian, which made him somewhat anxious about losing him.

"If you really miss it, then you're just unlucky. Hahaha!" Anyway, the captain got the photo, so he was just talking without any sense of the situation.

"I really am..." Faced with the captain's unrestrained smile, the co-pilot was speechless for a long time.

Just then, the cabin crew gave a signal requesting entry. The captain opened the monitor at the cockpit door, and after confirming that there were no problems, he signaled to the co-pilot that he could open the cockpit door.

With a crisp click as the latch clicked open, the flight attendant opened the cockpit door and entered the cockpit carrying two trays.

"Captain, this is an extra meal from first class today, black pepper steak, please have a taste." The flight attendant handed the meal to the captain first, and then to the first officer.

This flight had first class, so they served extra food. While she was down there, she asked the cockpit if she wanted steak.

Sometimes the crew meals are like pig slop, so when they suddenly get a chance to eat steak, the crew is more than happy to accept it. So, while they were still on the ground, they agreed that the meal would start after the plane leveled off.

The captain took the tray and turned to the chief flight attendant, asking, "Is there anything to drink?"

He remembered that first class should have been served plenty of drinks. Drinking only tea or mineral water was quite bland, and he always wanted to try something different.

"A drink?" the flight attendant chuckled. "Captain, would you like some red wine? We've provided some this time."

It's standard practice to serve red wine in first class.

"Red wine?" The captain paused for a moment, then smiled wryly. "You're tempting me to break the rules. Is there anything else?"

Drinking alcohol during a flight is strictly prohibited; it's a red line that will essentially end a person's career.

"Anything else? Like juice or something, would you like?" The flight attendant, sitting behind the captain, closed the cockpit door behind her. "And some soda water."

"That's all?" The captain's interest waned. He asked the co-pilot, "What do you want?"

The passenger in the front seat was fiddling with a tablecloth when he shook his head: "Never mind, I don't need it."

"Then I won't need it. I'll just have my tea." The captain clicked his tongue, put a pillow on his lap, and placed the tray on it. "I really don't know when we'll have a small table. Eating is such a hassle."

Boeing pilots have always had a strong attachment to tray tables.

Seeing that the two pilots ahead of her were already eating and there seemed to be no further instructions, the flight attendant prepared to leave. However, just as she stood up, the co-pilot suddenly remembered something, put down his knife and fork, and turned to ask the flight attendant, "Um... in first class, isn't Xu Xian there?"

"Xu Xian?" The flight attendant raised an eyebrow. "Yes, he is."

The co-pilot immediately became excited: "Okay. If it's convenient, could you tell Xu Xian that I'd like to take a picture with him after we land? Ask him if that's okay, and then call me after you're done."

"This..." The flight attendant glanced at the captain, who was engrossed in eating, and frowned as she asked, "Maybe I'm not a pilot, but I don't quite understand what's so special about Xu Xian. And the captain just now, didn't he have an incident where he overran the runway not long ago? Is it really necessary to elevate him to such a pedestal?"

To be honest, the flight attendant simply couldn't understand why there was such reverence for a young man like Xu Xian. For those in this line of work, all the mystique surrounding civil aviation simply doesn't exist in front of frontline staff like them.

Because they were so familiar with each other, the flight attendant couldn't understand why the captain and first officer could revere a colleague like that. Admittedly, this young man named Xu Xian seemed to be very skilled, but he wasn't the kind of person who could be elevated to a pedestal. Didn't Xu Xian just have an incident where he overran the runway? He seemed to be just a normal person who could make mistakes.

"Isn't that matter still unresolved? The flight data recorder hasn't been repaired yet. The authorities have only suspended his operating license, not punished him. Before the flight data recorder data is fully repaired, we can't say that the runway overrun was Xu Xian's mistake." The co-pilot earnestly corrected the purser's error.

Xu Xian is currently unable to fly commercial flights not because of a penalty for running off the runway, but because of necessary measures taken before the situation was fully clear. There is a huge difference between these two situations.

"You're not a pilot, so you don't understand how amazing he is. You just don't get it." The co-pilot shook his finger, attributing the flight attendant's "prejudice" solely to her lack of expertise. Experts see the details, laymen only see the spectacle; only those who fly can truly understand how skilled Xu Xian really is.

"I just don't understand." Seeing that things had gotten this far, the flight attendant decided to be frank: "I don't care whether his skills are good or not, and I'm not interested in whether he caused the runway overrun before. But... there's something wrong with this guy! Captain, don't you think that makes sense? In recent years, how many major incidents have happened here? In which one wasn't Xu Xian involved? I heard that Xu Xian was also there when that female pilot from Star Trek had her accident last time."

Xu Xian wasn't on the plane during the last engine detachment incident involving Lian Shanxue; he only spoke a few words to her over the radio. However, this incident eventually got out.

The flight attendant's words made sense; Xu Xian had been involved in almost every major incident in civil aviation in recent years. He seemed to be like a magnet, constantly drawing emergencies towards him.

"It's all just superstitious stuff, what's there to ponder?" The captain wasn't too concerned about such unfounded rumors. "Even though Xu Xian has encountered so many emergencies, hasn't he handled them all properly? That's called competence! He didn't crash the plane, so why put such unpleasant accusations on him? It's not good to talk about others behind their backs."

"Captain, aren't you afraid?" For some reason, the flight attendant was still bothered by Xu Xian's "trouble-bringing" incident.

"What are you afraid of?" The captain didn't even look up, continuing to eat his steak in silence.

"Our company is the same. Everyone says there's a typhoon in the south, and they don't cancel flights in this kind of weather. What if something goes wrong?" The flight attendant finally vented: "I might not care at other times, but in this kind of weather, with this plague on the plane, to be honest, my heart has been racing ever since takeoff."

The captain put down his knife and fork: "Purifier, watch your manners. I took your venting as just that, but I don't want your personal emotions to affect the service to first-class passengers."

The flight attendant almost bluntly referred to Xu Xian as a "plague god," which greatly displeased the captain, who then spoke quite harshly.

The flight attendant noticed the captain's dissatisfaction and realized that she had probably angered him, so she wisely shut her mouth and stopped talking about anything related to Xu Xian.

She knew perfectly well that she had lost her composure. But she just couldn't control her wild thoughts, mainly because Xu Xian's past deeds were indeed easy to make people have some bad thoughts.

Seeing that the cockpit seemed to have no interest in her, the flight attendant prepared to leave. However, just as she turned around, the captain's tray was handed to her.

"I've finished eating, you can take it back."

When the flight attendant looked at the plate, she saw that only half of the steak had been eaten.

At that moment, the co-pilot hesitated for a moment, then handed his unfinished meal to the flight attendant: "Take mine with you too."

The flight attendant's expression was also unpleasant, but once words are spoken, they cannot be taken back.

"Okay." The purser didn't say much, took the trays from the two people, opened the cockpit door, and handed the trays to flight attendant number three in the front cabin crew compartment.

Just as the flight attendant was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something and said to the captain, "Captain, we have a VIP in first class who said they need a shuttle bus after landing."

"VIP? What VIP?" the captain asked, puzzled. VIPs usually have their job titles noted on their names, but he hadn't checked the passenger information and hadn't noticed there was a VIP on this flight.

"I don't know, there's no note about his position or anything. It's just that the cabin crew called me specifically before takeoff and asked me to tell you," the purser said truthfully.

"You didn't tell us who it was? You just told us to call an in-flight vehicle?" the captain asked.

"Yes."

The captain shrugged and said, "Fine, I got it. I'll let the airport know after we land."

Once everything was cleared up, the flight attendant didn't waste any time and closed the door immediately.

Once only the captain and co-pilot were in the cockpit, the co-pilot couldn't help but ask, "Brother, although we don't believe in any superstitious stuff, the Xu Xian thing is really weird. Special operations are focusing on him, isn't that strange?"

The captain frowned. One fact remained: any of the special circumstances Xu Xian encountered might be something other pilots would never experience in their entire lives. Yet Xu Xian had encountered them several times in just a few years, which was indeed somewhat illogical.

"Perhaps... perhaps this is what makes someone extraordinary. 'Heaven will entrust great responsibilities to those who are first tested with hardship and toil.'"

The co-pilot chuckled, "The key is that it's not just him who's causing trouble; it's all Xingyou's planes. How many Xingyou Airlines planes do you think are already in Xu Xian's hands?"

The captain gave a wry smile: "If Xu Xian were in our company, he could have ruined half of it."

If Star Travel is a small to medium-sized airline, then Letu is a completely small airline, with an even smaller fleet than Star Travel. It really doesn't have much capital for Xu Xian to squander.

"What the purser said earlier is normal. I also thought it would be canceled with this weather today. I really didn't expect the company to bite the bullet and insist on flying." The co-pilot expanded the detection range of the weather radar to 160 nautical miles. He saw that the area the flight path passed through was covered by a large area of ​​weather. If they wanted to detour, the nearest distance would be more than 150 nautical miles.

The co-pilot pointed to the large shadow on the weather radar and sighed, "We'd have to go around to the right, but to be safe, it'd take at least 200 nautical miles. Going to the left... forget it, we can't get around that one anyway."

According to the weather radar, the weather coverage area of ​​the left-hand route has exceeded the radar's display range. It is estimated that if we want to detour, we will have to go more than 300 nautical miles. Moreover, this is just an estimate. It is questionable whether we can even detour 300 nautical miles.

Yes, the company gave us a lot of fuel this time, but we can't just keep going around in circles for 300 nautical miles. What does 300 nautical miles mean? It's over 600 kilometers! The key point is, after going around for more than 300 nautical miles, we still have to go back. No matter how much fuel we have, we can't just mess around like that.

Compared to endlessly circling to the left, circling to the right is relatively more feasible, and even if we circle to the right, it would probably be less than two hundred nautical miles.

However, looking at the weather radar, which is circling for about 150 nautical miles, the radar shadows are mostly green. It's possible that the area is just a rain zone with no dangerous weather. We could try turning back early instead of actually flying 200 nautical miles.

"It's definitely better to go to the right." The captain clicked his tongue. "However, going that far to the right might mean crossing the border."

The border is to the right of this flight path. If we detour more than 100 nautical miles to the right, there's a good chance we'll cross the border. However, the plane can't display the exact location of the border, so the captain couldn't be sure and was just guessing.

"The border? Oh right!" After the captain mentioned it, the co-pilot also remembered the border: "Should I ask Huacheng?"

"Okay, go ahead and ask. Just say, how far can you go if you turn right from Xiangping?" the captain said.

According to the weather radar, most of the weather occurs after the Xiangping point.

"Okay!" The co-pilot nodded and contacted Huacheng Traffic Control, asking, "Huacheng, Letu 5641!"

"5641, Huacheng, please speak!"

"Excuse me, how many nautical miles can we detour to the right from Xiangping?" the co-pilot asked, following the captain's instructions.

After a short wait, the traffic control in Huacheng gave us the answer: "Lotto 5641, the furthest you can go is 120 nautical miles to the right."

"One hundred and twenty nautical miles?" The co-pilot glanced at the weather radar. One hundred and twenty nautical miles to the right was still all yellow zone, which was quite dangerous. One hundred and twenty nautical miles was definitely not enough.

"Is there a restricted area or something?" If it is because of a restricted area, it can be coordinated under certain circumstances.

"No!" Huacheng Control directly denied, "After crossing 120 nautical miles, we'll be at the border."

"The border! It really is the border." Although he had some suspicions beforehand, the captain couldn't help but feel disappointed after receiving confirmation from Huacheng Airport Control. If it was the border, then things were indeed quite difficult. If they were lucky, there was a slight possibility that the restricted area would be temporarily opened. But the border was there; they couldn't just move it because they had to detour, could they?

If you can't go around to the right, then things get tricky.

The captain simply took the radio: "Huacheng, can you see from the radar how far we'll have to go if we turn left?"

Due to the limited detection range of the airborne weather radar, the crew of Letu 5641 could not actually see the entire weather situation. However, area control radar could see a much larger area of ​​weather conditions. Therefore, the captain wanted to ask air traffic control for their opinion.

"From my perspective, you're going to have to go around to the border between Jiangcheng and Shangdu, which is probably more than 400 nautical miles away. That's too far, we can't go around it."

"Over four hundred nautical miles? That far? How big must the weather be?" The captain was also astonished by the vast area affected by the weather. In all his years as a pilot, this was the first time he had ever seen such a large-scale weather system.

There's a border line blocking the way on the left, and the right side is too far to go around. I'm in a dilemma, what should I do?

The captain thought for a moment and asked air traffic control, "Huacheng, how did the plane in front of me circle around in this direction?"

"Lotoo 5641, you're the first one in this direction. I don't have any reference information to provide." Air traffic control was also quite helpless: "It seems like all flights in this direction have been canceled today. The last plane to pass through this direction was four hours ago."

Asking about the flight path of the aircraft ahead is a very common practice. It can provide a fairly good reference. But they are the first one, and they have no idea what's going on ahead, which is the most dangerous thing.

Information from four hours prior is completely irrelevant.

"Brother, what do we do now?" Faced with the seemingly insurmountable weather ahead, the passenger was also at a loss.

The captain studied the weather radar display for a while, then suddenly pointed to an area and asked, "Do you think it's okay to go this way?"

The co-pilot looked in the direction the captain pointed and saw a relatively weak area in their path after a right turn of about thirty degrees. If they were to force their way through from any other direction, it would take at least forty nautical miles. However, judging from the direction the captain was pointing, they only needed to travel less than twenty nautical miles to break through the weather barrier ahead, which resembled the Great Wall.

"If we're going to get through, this is definitely a good option. But why does it suddenly dip in there? It looks a bit strange!" The co-pilot frowned, looking at the weather radar display.

The weather ahead of them was evenly distributed, but in the area the captain pointed to, it suddenly dipped, and the dipped area showed no weather at all, not even a faint green shadow. It looked quite eerie.

"Who cares if it's strange or not? That's what the weather radar shows. Let's just follow the radar, right?" the captain said. "Besides, this area we're passing through doesn't look too dangerous. Let's give it a try. If it doesn't work, we'll turn back. We definitely can't go around it anyway. Let's just try this once. If it doesn't work, we'll go back."

The captain's words made sense to the co-pilot. According to the weather radar, the weather shadow over the vulnerable area was predominantly green with a slight yellow tinge; in terms of intensity, it was indeed acceptable, and giving it a try wouldn't hurt. As the captain said, there was no other way; this was their only chance.

Moreover, the captain had made it clear. If they felt something was wrong after flying in, they should turn back. The co-pilot thought, "There shouldn't be any problem trying it out."

"Hmm, that works too." The captain's words convinced the co-pilot, who also felt it wouldn't hurt to give it a try: "Shall I ask air traffic control?"

"Hmm, ask around, just ask if flight path 130 is allowed?"

The co-pilot nodded: "Huacheng is under air traffic control due to weather conditions. We are requesting flight path 130."

Upon receiving the request, the air traffic control in Huacheng hesitated for a moment before quickly asking, "Lotoo 5641, are you planning to navigate through the weather from the direction of flight path 130?"

"That's right!" the co-pilot replied.

"But the weather looks very strong on my radar for flight path 130. Are you sure you want to fly that way?"

"Very strong?" The captain was taken aback for a moment, then took the radio: "According to the radar, track 130 is the easiest to navigate in this weather."

"Huh?" The air traffic controller was also confused. How come what the crew saw was different from what he saw?

"Huacheng Air Traffic Control, how about this? I'll fly along flight path 130 first, and if there are any problems, I'll turn back. What do you think?" the captain said.

The controller, staring at his radar screen, was also conflicted: "So, you still want to give it a try, right?"

"That's right," the captain confirmed. "My radar shows that the weather intensity on track 130 isn't too bad."

The air traffic controller couldn't understand why the information the crew and he saw was so different, but since the crew insisted, he didn't say anything more: "Lotoo 5641, track 130, approved! If there are any problems, you can tell me immediately, and I can arrange for an immediate turnaround."

With that word from the air traffic control, the captain felt much more at ease: "Trajectory 130 received."

With that, the captain used the heading selection to turn the plane to the right and flew towards the weather.

If you haven't gotten the God's Light yet, you can try to get it.

(End of this chapter)