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Chapter Forty Two
An hour before the plane took off, Lina cancelled the ticket and everyone returned to the investigation headquarters.
In the empty investigative headquarters, most of the machines have already been transported back to the NTSB headquarters in Washington, and even most investigators took a plane back to Washington after the summary reception the night before. Today, not many people remain in the investigation headquarters, only Lowens and a few young investigators are left.
After returning to the investigation headquarters, Zhuo Huan asked, "What's going on."
Lovins looked ugly because of the hangover last night. He wore a crumpled suit and was very helpless: "There was news from Canada this morning that TSB (Transportation Safety Board of Canada) received information. A fisherman called the TV station and said that he had salvaged one in September last year. Something, suspected to be a black box."
Zhuo Huan: "Are you sure."
Lowens: "Not sure, TSB has already contacted the fisherman, but the possibility is quite high. The fisherman immediately recognized the black box after hearing the news yesterday. And the black box was not completely damaged by the explosion. , Still maintains some orange-red colors. He is very impressed with this strange color. It is expected that TSB officials will get the black box today and send it to Washington tomorrow."
Zhuo Huan glanced at Lowens, then turned to look at his members.
"Well, then go to Washington."
At 5 o'clock that afternoon, TSB gave accurate information, confirming that the metal cube mentioned by the fisherman was a black box.
On September 17 last year, when American Airlines 4012 crashed and disappeared for a full month, no one thought that its black box had drifted along the ocean current to Canadian waters and was caught by a fisherman.
At a distance of nearly two thousand nautical miles, the fisherman never thought that this thing would be the wreckage of the plane that crashed in Boston, USA. He lives in a small port town with underdeveloped traffic. After studying for half a month, he didn't figure out what this thing was, so he sold it to a junkyard.
Fortunately, the waste disposal station in this small town is not efficient, and metal waste is piled up in mountains. TSB summoned hundreds of people to look for it for four hours, and finally found the black box.
It is buried at the bottom of the garbage mountain.
The parts with words and numbers are all muddy due to airplane explosion and seawater corrosion. But the other half is still bright orange-red. Even if it was hit by a strong force and drifted with the ocean currents, it was not damaged at all.
It was not until December that the wreckage of the plane was found by the salvage company. But as early as September, the black box was fished ashore.
The TSB people sent the black box to the NTSB headquarters in Washington overnight.
When NTSB and American Airlines jointly released the reward, neither side had thought that they could really find a black box. This is probably the decision of fate. After the UAAG people and Lowens returned to the Washington headquarters, Lowens was quickly called to the office by his colleagues.
Su Fei craned his neck curiously and glanced at it several times: "Isn't the black box delivered yet? Where is he going?"
Old Joseph smiled: "I don't understand, he is going to be promoted."
Su Fei: "Oh?"
No, what happened? need to be promoted? Are your NTSB officers so well promoted?
Fucheng thought for a while: "The NTSB originally did not intend to issue a reward, and continued to look for the black box. After publishing the investigation report, they planned to end the case. It was Lowens who suggested to continue to look for the black box, and now his advice has been received so soon. Effective." After a pause, Fucheng looked at Lina, "Does the outside world have any opinion on this?"
Lina smiled slightly: "Fuck, I like to talk to smart people. That's right, since the NTSB said in the afternoon that it found the black box of American Airlines 4012, the media, the public, and the Internet have all set off a wave of discussions. Both NTSB and American Airlines have been greatly affected. Good praise, I searched Twitter just now, and the current top searches are all boasting NTSB. The US government agencies have not been so respected by the public for a long time."
Previously, because the wreckage of the aircraft was salvaged in Boston Bay, and after long-term seawater soaking, the fuselage was fragile and rusty, making it inconvenient for long-distance transportation. Therefore, the NTSB set up a temporary investigation headquarters in Boston to conduct aircraft accident investigations.
Nowadays, most of the instruments have been moved back to Washington, and the black boxes are also very convenient to transport, so everyone comes to Washington to continue their work.
As Joseph Sr. said, Lovins will be happy and refreshed when he returns. He said very enthusiastically: "Do you need me to help you contact the hotel? This is Washington. I should entertain you."
Lina: "Lovins, you question my ability to work again."
Lowens: "Oh my fault, sorry, Lina, you must have arranged everything long ago."
That night, after a good rest. Early the next morning, the black box was sent to Washington by TSB staff.
It was placed in a metal container and carefully sent to the NTSB headquarters.
Old Joseph was a little surprised: "Isn't it delivered in the sea?"
Airplanes that crash into the ocean, when their black boxes are salvaged, are often immersed in vessels filled with sea water for preservation. The principle is similar to archaeological tomb digging. The objects in ancient tombs will always maintain a stable physical state when they are not in contact with the outside air. Once the tomb is opened and exposed to the outside air and light and heat, it is inevitable that it will undergo physical and chemical changes and be damaged.
The black box is stored in sea water to prevent damage to the external environment of the black box and to prevent data from being affected.
Lowens explained: "This black box was fished out in September last year. The fisherman didn't know what it was, let alone soaking it in water all the time. Its external environment has been changed. After observation, the people of TSB decided not to store them in sea water to avoid further changes."
Speaking of this, Lowens frowned and looked at Zhuo Huan: "Just like I said, Patrick, this black box has been exposed to the air for nearly half a year. From the outside, it shouldn’t be damaged. It is certainly not a problem to read the data directly after it is caught. But now, after so long, can the data remain intact?"
Zhuo Huan said lightly: "Ask the professionals." As he said, he turned to his side, revealing the punk boy standing behind him.
Su Fei never thought that Zhuo Huan would let him give him such a good opportunity to pretend to be? Also praise his professionalism?
It took a few seconds before he reacted: "Oh yes, um, no problem. Don’t you know, this aircraft is Airbus’s latest A390, and even the black box uses the latest EAFR data storage technology. ARINC767. When it records data, it will first collect the same frame rate from the message pool..."
As a professional air crash investigator, Lowens did not know the black box as thoroughly as Su Fei, but he could understand it. Su Fei didn't say anything particularly profound, just that it was easy to say, and it had to be done.
Lowens: "Please."
"no problem."
Soon, Su Fei worked with NTSB's professional data analysts to analyze the black box of American Airlines 4012.
Even downloading data from an intact black box would take three days. Now the black box of American Airlines 4012 has experienced aircraft explosion, sea water immersion, and air exposure after all. A week later, Su Fei and other talents repaired it and downloaded the data.
Su Fei: "The data of the cockpit voice recorder still needs two hours. The flight data has been downloaded. Let's look at this first?"
Zhuo Huan: "Yeah."
When the voice fell, Su Fei tapped on the keyboard for a while. Pressing the "enter" key, he raised his head: "Okay!"
The next moment, the densely packed line chart of flight data was projected onto the big screen.
Su Fei: "The new aircraft is really awesome, Airbus A390, I love it so much. Its black box records 89 items of data, a total of 89 items, all recorded! From time, air pressure, altitude, indicated airspeed, etc. Basic data, to yaw damper status, vibration warning for each engine, over-temperature warning...all! The aircraft with the most complete data record in the world is the Airbus A390, right?"
Hearing this, Zhuo Huan sneered.
Su Fei looked at him unclearly.
Lina smiled and kindly reminded: "The most complete is the McFly F485, which records 91 data, including the yaw damper command and the standby rudder valve status that the Airbus A390 does not have."
Su Fei: "..."
Well, forgot that there is another airplane designer here.
Ignoring Su Fei, Zhuo Huan stood in front of the big screen, carefully watching this detailed flight data map.
Zhuo Huan: "Enlarge this one."
Su Fei: "OK."
Zhuo Huan looked at it for a while: "Why did this piece suddenly drop to 9,000 feet? It's still some distance away from Boston, and it hasn't reached the landing stage yet."
Fucheng flipped through the information: "The recording of the air traffic control center recorded this paragraph. At that time, the plane encountered a small cyclone on the sea, and the weather radar showed that it was not obvious. The captain in charge of radio communications, Kyle, contacted the tower, hoping Can lower the altitude and bypass this area." After a pause, he added: "The weather on the sea is unpredictable, and seven or eight kinds of weather can appear in ten minutes. So many times rely on the weather radar equipped on the plane. Come to observe the weather. In order to avoid cyclones and storms, flying at a lower altitude is also very normal."
In the penultimate thirteenth minute of the crash, the pilot lowered the flight altitude to 9,000 feet after getting permission from the air traffic control. That is about 3000 meters in height.
Since then, the plane's flight has been very smooth, and there is no place that is too noticeable.
"Wind speed and direction, zoom in on this piece of data."
Su Fei immediately followed Zhuo Huan's instructions to temporarily block other data and only amplify the wind speed and direction data of the black box.
I saw the data broken line that had been floating in a small range on the large projection screen before, and when it reached the fifth-to-last minute, it suddenly seemed like a roller coaster, crashing and bumping up and down. If the previous wind speed and direction data is like a child playing a balance car, then it is now a racing driver in off-road racing.
Obviously, such outrageous and exaggerated data is definitely an important reason for the death of American Airlines 4012.
Lovins was in a mixed mood: "The weather on the sea is unpredictable... Vol, you are right, yeah, this is the sea. It seems that lowering to a height of 9,000 feet did not prevent them from avoiding the small cyclone. Or the cyclone is more exaggerated than they thought."
Fucheng: "Or maybe, it was a new cyclone."
Excessive wind speed and direction are absolutely fatal to an aircraft.
but.
Zhuo Huan: "The wind speed is not enough to make the Airbus A390 crash into the sea."
Lovins was taken aback for a moment, and was about to say "how do you know, do you want to do an experimental test first", suddenly he realized something suddenly, and quickly shut his mouth.
Oh, you used to open it, you know.
Zhuo Huan: "I did a wind speed test on the Airbus A390. Under a crosswind of 60 knots, its flight status will be affected. But as long as the driver operates properly, turns off the autopilot and performs manual driving, it can also fly smoothly. , It’s just quite difficult."
In the next second, he looked at Su Fei, but had not yet spoken. Su Fei had already made an "OK" gesture: "I have found the autopilot connection status data. RIP is right. They encountered it in the fifth minute from the last minute. There was a strong crosswind. Thirty seconds later, Deputy Captain Tim turned off the autopilot and turned on the manual mode... Oh, wait a minute!"
Su Fei exclaimed: "In the penultimate minute, he handed over the driving rights to the captain Kyle!"
Zhuo Huan: "Call up the data!"
"Yes!"
Sufei projected all the flight data on the screen.
I saw that before the plane crashed, the deputy captain did hand over the piloting authority to the captain, and the captain Kyle took control of the plane.
Old Joseph stared blankly at the data on the projection screen.
Suddenly, somehow, his nose became dry, and heavy acidity surged up. The tongue spins in the mouth, but I can't say a word. Taking a deep breath, Old Joseph: "I'm going to pour a glass of water." After speaking, he turned and walked outside the house, and everyone looked at him.
Under the dim light of the corridor, the figure of Old Joseph suddenly became heavy. He walked slowly, tired and overworked, and his shoulders trembled slightly. He raised his hand and wiped the corner of his eye.
Fucheng watched him walk into the pantry step by step, and then he retracted his gaze.
Fucheng: "In the previous investigation report, in terms of safety recommendations, there were long-length recommendations on crew communication and suggested that there may be communication barriers between the two pilots. However, based on the flight data currently seen See, after driving for a minute, Deputy Captain Tim found that he could not meet the required technology, so he submitted the control to the experienced captain. It took a minute to judge this fact and successfully proceeded with the transfer of driving rights. This time difference is very reasonable. I suggest that this item be reconsidered in the new investigation report."
Zhuo Huan glanced at him: "Well, this suggestion is very reasonable."
Everyone looked down again.
After the deputy captain Tim turned off the autopilot and started to drive manually, the plane's flight attitude had serious problems. The bad weather seriously affected the flight of the plane, Tim tried to save it, but it made the situation worse. Kyle took over, but it didn't get any better.
The plane accelerated frantically and eventually plunged into the water.
This flight data seems to be normal, and it is a very regular case of a typical air crash that was affected by the weather and the pilot failed to save the plane. The weather is the main reason, and the pilot’s skill is the secondary reason.
However, everyone has studied each data for a long time.
Lovins couldn't help it, and was the first to speak: "Why did you accelerate into the sea?"
Everyone looked up and looked at him.
Lowens: "I can understand that in bad weather and such strong winds, they did not control the plane well, which caused the plane to crash into the sea. But Tim made a mistake in his operation, was flawed, and had insufficient skills. Not only did he fail to save the plane, but also It made the plane dive into the sea at an accelerated speed. That’s fine. What about Kyle? He is a former U.S. Air Force pilot. He has a very good resume and excellent flying skills. I understand that he can’t save the plane. There are two minutes left, they are not high enough, and they are only 5,000 feet away from the sea... But why, when he is flying the plane, he is still accelerating?!"
It's not speeding up into the air, it's speeding up the dive!
Why did the two pilots make the same mistake together?
The young and inexperienced deputy captain made the wrong decision. Why did even the experienced and flawless captain make such a stupid move?
Zhuo Huan looked at the data on the screen, tapped his slender finger lightly, and everyone looked at his finger.
That was the last twelve seconds of the plane crashing into the sea. As if only then realized that he was accelerating towards the sea, Captain Kyle finally made the right decision and began to pull up the nose of the plane that was about to crash. But it was too late, and the plane rushed into the vast ocean frantically with maximum acceleration.
"It's not that he didn't want to save, but he realized that it was too late." Zhuo Huan raised his head and looked at the investigators inside the house, with a calm expression and cold eyes: "Then the question is, why, the two pilots in the first place Didn't even realize that they made the wrong decision, they are speeding up toward the sea?"
When the old Joseph returned to the office, everyone was conducting a detailed investigation of the aircraft's 89 data, accurate to the frame.
He heard the discussion before everyone, thought about it, and found Fucheng.
Fucheng was sitting in front of the computer, watching the final driving data curve of Captain Kyle.
"Vol."
Suddenly hearing the voice of Old Joseph, Fucheng suddenly returned to his senses and looked up at him. "You are back, old Joseph."
Old Joseph pulled a chair and sat down beside him: "I've heard about what happened just now. It's really amazing. I can understand Tim's driving mistake, but it's Kyle Shulman. His resume is true. Very good. I heard of him when I was in the Air Force. He is a very good Air Force pilot. How could he make such a low-level flight error."
Fucheng was silent: "I actually already have an idea, but you didn't come back just now, I want to discuss it with you, and then confirm."
Old Joseph was stunned: "It seems that our opinions coincide, and I also think of one thing."
The two smiled at each other.
Old Joseph: "Why don't we write down our own guesses together and see if we thought of going together?"
Fucheng: "Okay."
The two of them typed out their guessed reasons on their mobile phones, and then showed them to each other.
"Vestibular hallucination" is written on Fucheng's mobile phone.
The one on the old Joseph’s phone is...
Fucheng was taken aback for a while, then smiled: "Speeding up the sea...Well, you are more thoughtful than I am, I am not accurate to this point."
Old Joseph laughed: "I'm just more experienced than you. I have really seen this kind of air crash."
Soon, the two found Zhuo Huan together.
Zhuo Huan raised an eyebrow: "Huh?"
Old Joseph smiled and said, "Reid, have you heard of Coriolis hallucinations?"
Zhuo Huan was stunned. He frowned and looked at old Joseph and Fucheng.
"You mean... the two pilots made a mistake together. Is it because of the Coriolis acceleration hallucination?"
As soon as the voice fell, Su Fei yelled happily on the other side: "RIP, you must praise me. It only took me an hour to download the cockpit voice recorder data. I am really a genius on horseback!"
Everyone's expression changed.
Zhuo Huan stood up: "Open it, listen to it from beginning to end."
...
In the long silence, only the various instruments made regular sounds.
Suddenly, the voice of Captain Kyle appeared. He didn't say anything special, just contacted the tower, informed about his flight status, and asked.
"This is American Airlines 4012. What is the plane on duty at Logan Airport today, Over."
After getting an answer, he shut down the radio communication.
Quiet again in the cockpit.
After a long time, the voice of Deputy Captain Tim suddenly appeared: "Captain, do you want to land early."
After waiting for a few seconds, no response was received.
As if a basin of cold water was pouring on his head, Deputy Captain Tim did not speak anymore.
Finally, the captain Kyle finally answered, and he reprimanded in a cold voice: "It has been half an hour before takeoff. As a pilot, it is the most basic quality to ensure that passengers arrive at their destination on time and safely. "
There was a moment of silence.
Deputy Captain Tim: "Yes, I get it."
The two did not communicate at all, all the conversations were about flight data.
Until the fifteenth minute, Kyle asked the tower to lower the height. After obtaining permission, Tim flew the plane, lowered the altitude, trying to avoid the cyclone.
However, in the last five minutes, everything changed suddenly.
Captain Kyle's cold voice sounded: "Pay attention to crosswinds and ensure flight status!"
"Yes!"
The violent and turbulent wind, even if separated from life and death, separated by more than two hundred days and nights, was also transmitted to the heart of everyone present through the sound. A hurricane of up to 60 knots made all the sounds in the cockpit become like a curtain of water, buzzing indistinctly.
"Damn, what are you doing!"
"Sorry, captain, please drive, I don't feel right!"
With a beep, Captain Kyle took over the driving right.
"Fuck! What's going on, what happened!"
"Captain, it's not right, it's definitely not right, I'm very dizzy, have we hallucinated."
In the dark night, above the sea, the world is dizzy, without any reference objects that can be seen visually. Everything is muddy, reason tells them what must be wrong, but the senses deceive them, so that they don't know where they are doing wrong.
Until the last twelfth second to the last, the captain Kyle roared: "Shit, are we accelerating? Where is the direction facing?!"
Dive straight down from high altitude, already can see the sparkling sea.
On the sea, the moonlight glowed with hazy colors.
Tim said in horror: "Raise, raise!"
"Do not!"
"Do not!!!"
With a bang, everything returned to peace.
After closing the recording with only the busy voice, Zhuo Huan glanced at Fucheng and Old Joseph, and then said to all the investigators present: "It seems that things are already obvious..."
"Cross couple illusion."
"The so-called Coriolis acceleration illusion."
Coriolis acceleration illusion, one of the vestibular hallucinations.During a long-term regular flight maneuver, the semicircular canals in the pilot's ears reach equilibrium, making the pilot mistakenly believe that he is accelerating smoothly.At this time, when the outside world suddenly gives him a change action, it will cause the liquid in the semicircular canal to flow.
In an instant, the world changes, endless illusions swallow all senses.
It is hailed as the most dangerous vestibular hallucination, because when it happens, it will produce a huge imbalance, leading to a series of autonomic nervous reactions.
So even if the pilot realized it, it was almost impossible to save.